• About
  • Our Work
  • Join
  • Partner
  • Media
EMAIL SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
SUBSCRIBE TO NEWSLETTER

Sign-up for monthly updates on Winrock's work around the world.

Volunteer Blog

VOLUNTEER BLOG

November volunteer of the month

  • SHARE:
  • Copy

Posted on November 25, 2015

Happy Thanksgiving! This year, like every year, we are thankful for our wonderful volunteers, including our November Volunteer of the Month, Julie Longland.

Our F2F staff are impressed with the extra time that Julie dedicated before and during her assignment, the variety of creative teaching methods that she used during her trainings, and her ongoing support for the F2F Program.

In partnership with the USAID-funded Knowledge-based Integrated Sustainable Agriculture Nutrient Project, Julie’s F2F assignment focused on providing pesticide management training to pesticide entrepreneurs (suppliers, retailers, executive members, agrovets, and government officials) in five locations throughout Nepal. As a graduate of Purdue University and North Carolina State University (NSCU) — two land-grant universities with strong extension programs, Julie saw volunteering as a natural expansion of that mission and was always interested in giving back, specifically in agricultural development. Julie first learned of the Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) Program through one of her professors at NCSU and was immediately interested in volunteering when the opportunity arose.

During her assignment, Julie worked with the Pesticide Entrepreneur’s Association Nepal (PEAN), a nonprofit organization aimed at increasing agricultural production through the judicious use of pesticides. In working with PEAN, Julie explained that “it is an easy criticism for people to say that retailers only are interested in making money, but PEAN clearly shows that they care about agro-vets, their families, farmers, and Nepal.”

Julie put a lot of effort into preparing for the trainings, incorporating group discussions, answer and question sessions, quizzes, games, and audio/visual materials.

nep218-volunteer-julie-miranda-longland-pointing-the-participants-answering-on-good-and-bad-things-observed-by-group-in-quiz-context

Julie in action during one of her trainings

In addition to her full training program in the five locations, she also worked overtime to tailor the trainings to each group and prepared additional sessions on special topics for each group based on needs they identified during the first day of the training. Julie’s work in preparing these dynamic sessions will enhance the capacity of agrovets to deliver appropriate guidance on pesticide selection and safe use practices to farmers, and will strengthen their knowledge on best practices to minimize the risk of exposure when selling or handling pesticides.

At the end of her trip, Julie reflected, “A former manager of mine had been to Nepal as a Fulbright Scholar, and he maintained his enthusiasm for the country from grad school through to his recent visit for a different Farmer-to-Farmer assignment. I am happy to report I share his good opinion of Nepal. I will definitely have to come back some day.” 

Professionally, Julie enjoys volunteering because it challenges her as a technical expert to explain scientific concepts and processes to diverse groups of individuals with varying education levels in an easily digestible manner.

Julie values what she learns on each assignment and is committed to sharing her experience as an F2F volunteer. “It is interesting to see parallels between the U.S. and developing country practices, especially the technologies and polices that we take for granted,” she explains. Since returning to the US, Julie has shared stories and lessons from her assignment with faculty and students at NCSU and staff from the National Science Foundation Center for Integrated Pest Management. She also shared her training documents to help another individual prepare for his upcoming USAID-funded trip to develop a pesticide manual in Nepal.

Thank you, Julie, for all your hard work in helping to improve pesticide safety in Nepal!

Posted in Asia, Nepal, Volunteer of the Month | Tagged F2F 30th Anniversary, Farmer-to-Farmer, international volunteer, Nepal
ABOUT FARMER-TO-FARMER WINROCK VOLUNTEER ASSISTANCE

SUBSCRIBE TO POSTS

Loading

ARCHIVE

  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • December 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • April 2021
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • November 2019
  • September 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011

CATEGORIES

  • AET
  • Africa
    • Ghana
    • Senegal
  • Asia
  • Bangladesh
  • Cuba
  • El Salvador
  • Ethiopia
  • Field Staff
  • Guinea
  • Kenya
  • Latin America
  • Mali
  • Myanmar
  • Nepal
  • Nigeria
  • Postharvest
  • Rural Livelihoods
  • Senegal
  • Spotlights
  • Volunteer Feedback
  • Volunteer of the Month
  • Winrock Staff
WinrockIntl
Tweets by @WinrockIntl
Follow @WinrockIntl

204 E 4th Street | North Little Rock, Arkansas 72114

ph +1 501 280 3000 | fx +1 501 280 3090

2451 Crystal Drive, Suite 700 | Arlington, Virginia 22202

ph +1 703 302 6500 | fx +1 703 302 6512

  • Contact
  • E-News Signup
  • Low Bandwidth
  • Code of Conduct
  • Winrock Privacy Statement
  • Site Map
  • Terms of Use
Copyright © 2015- Winrock International
DEV ENVIRONMENT