My journey as a Farmer-to-Farmer volunteer recruiter with Winrock began about four years ago. I had discovered a knack and affinity for this kind of work when I ran a volunteer program for a veteran service organization. Essentially, my job is bridging the gap between highly qualified individuals and opportunities for them to use these skills to give back. The more I did the work the more joy it brought me. I often think about the altruism that so heavily influences a person to serve in a volunteer capacity. I think about how grateful both the beneficiaries and the volunteers are to have such a fulfilling exchange and I’m happy that I am able to help facilitate this exchange.

With the world being in such an uncertain state, I think it has become easier to forget about volunteering, with so many priorities taking up most of our time.  Everyone is understandably preoccupied. However, with the holiday seasons approaching, I wanted to encourage us all to remember the importance of volunteerism.  Remember why it’s so important to give back and think about the benefits that come from these experiences. In my line of work, feedback has become increasingly important. It’s essential that I understand what does and doesn’t work within our volunteer program, which has moved mostly to virtual spaces. The most resounding feedback that I often receive are the sentiments of both excitement and fulfillment that is brought about when a volunteer donates their time and skills to help others.

As an advocate of volunteerism I thought it might be helpful to share some tips on how to get involved if you’re interested in volunteer opportunities — and how to reignite your passion for volunteerism if you’ve gotten out of the habit and feel a bit rusty.

Ways to give back:

Virtual volunteer opportunities: COVID-19 has created a unique opportunity for virtual/remote opportunities using modern technological practices. Check out Winrock International virtual volunteer assignments here Winrock International » Volunteer

Join a board: Many non-profit organizations need member to help guide the direction of their institution and fundraise. This can be a great opportunity to elevate a budding organization and can also provide robust networking opportunities.

Volunteer abroad: Maybe you’ve done great work in your own back yard and now you want to explore how your skills can support developing countries abroad. Look no further, because Winrock offers the best international volunteer experiences. Our assignments have been paused due to COVID-19 restrictions but there will be opportunities like these in the future.

Share volunteer opportunities: If you are unable to volunteer ,that’s OK! Just remember that lending a helping hand comes in many different forms. The best way to support could be simple sharing of information about volunteer opportunities within your network.

Volunteerism is a way to practice thankfulness for all one has been given and share those gifts — whether it is your skills or your time — with others. This year, I am thankful for the people I get to work with and their generosity. It’s awe inspiring and I couldn’t see myself doing anything different at this point in my life.

Wishing everyone a safe and happy Thanksgiving, even if it looks a bit different this year.

“If our hopes of building a better and safer world are to become more than wishful thinking, we will need the engagement of volunteers more than ever.” — Kofi Annan

This quote from Kofi Annan really resonates, given everything that our world is facing these days. AND – it’s National Volunteer Week! Now, more than ever, I think we can all benefit from inspirational examples of American volunteers making an impact around the world.

In the last year, Winrock engaged 70 volunteers on assignments in nine countries, primarily through the USAID Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) Program. These volunteers donated a collective 1,400 days of time to 59 host organizations, lending their skills and expertise on topics ranging from agricultural production and processing to curriculum development and pedagogy, to business planning and financial management. They have empowered farmers and entrepreneurs; strengthened training institutions and schools; improved quality, diversity, and safety of food products; and directly improved the lives of thousands of individuals in rural Africa and Asia.

This week, in particular, we celebrate these noble and meaningful efforts.

Here are some of our volunteers in action in the last year:

Volunteer, Dr. Hameed, shows off the mushroom pizza the Mushroom Producers Association made together in Ghana

Volunteer Kerry Richards and a local farmer practice plant transplanting in Guinea

Volunteer Gary Wingenbach visits demonstration plots and research project on the campus of Adeyemi College of Education in Nigeria

Volunteer Olumide Mitchelle Makanjuola poses with the women of AFSM and AWLAE in Mali after her workshop on building successful business practices

Volunteer Dr. Kassama works with CLCOP women to create enriched flour to sell in Senegal

In addition to imparting valuable – and oftentimes, critical – technical knowledge to enable people to improve their livelihoods, our volunteers also contribute to increased cross-cultural understanding, building a bridge between our countries and reinforcing human connections.

Many of our volunteers stay in touch with their host organizations and field staff after the end of their assignment. It’s been heartwarming to see an increase in this outreach during the coronavirus crisis, with volunteers and field staff reaching out to each other with concern and solidarity and to deepen the bonds that they formed over the course of their assignments. Especially now, these are such important reminders that we are all in this together.

THANK YOU, volunteers, for your generosity, kindness, hard work, expertise, and perseverance. You have made a difference, in more ways than one.

And though we are currently pausing international volunteer travel due to the global coronavirus pandemic, we are anxious to continue to serve our beneficiary communities around the world. We hope to resume travel later this year – and as always, open volunteer opportunities will be posted on our website: www.winrock.org/volunteer.

Greetings from our Farmer-to-Farmer team here in the USA! Our U.S.-based team is incredibly grateful for our dedicated country staff, skilled volunteers and welcoming program hosts across the globe, without whom our work providing solutions for some of the world’s most complex social, agricultural, and environmental issues would not be possible. Enjoy this account of an international team coming together, along with country hosts, to continue our path forward in achieving our mission. Thank you! 

In November 2019, Winrock International organized a Farmer-to-Farmer Regional Meeting to reflect on the past year of implementation and plan for the upcoming year. This meeting, which took place in Senegal, marked my first time traveling to West Africa, and the greater African continent. The opportunity to participate in this meeting came because I work alongside colleagues in both our West African offices as well as our stateside offices in planning for, recruiting, and mobilizing U.S. volunteers to bring technical assistance to projects across West Africa through the USAID Farmer-to-Farmer Program. Though I have been working on the project since January, this marked my first opportunity to begin meeting our country staff who work on the project.

In Senegal, we were joined by our entire Senegal team, as well as all our country directors from Ghana, Guinea, Mali, and Nigeria. As we came together to discuss successes, challenges, and plans for the coming year, we shared laughter, meals, and more about ourselves with each other. As we discussed the program, the key themes for working together were flexibility, communication, and partnership. While this project is international, the same themes that make work successful on a local scale are also the keys to working with an international team. Having extensive time face to face with the country staff made all the difference in helping to more clearly understand their daily context on the ground in the countries we are working in. It also helped to build relationships with my colleagues – as being face to face for a week provides opportunities weekly or biweekly meetings by phone or video do not. Our week together in Senegal was full of learning – both in sessions in a meeting room and in field visits with hosts we have and continue to work with. In our meetings together we had sessions led by each of us that ranged from growing local partnerships to increasing our recruitment of experts as volunteers. During our field visits, we learned how our host organizations have grown and adapted their work as a result of volunteer assignments and recommendations and learned about continuing needs to be addressed by future volunteers. We visited several vocational training centers in Guinea that utilize our volunteers to train their staff and students, but more widely to increase technical knowledge and skills for their communities as a whole.

Following my time in Senegal, I traveled to Guinea with my colleague from the National Peace Corps Association, a sub-awardee under Winrock’s Farmer-to-Farmer project, and we spent 4 days with the Guinea office planning for the year, building relationships, and visiting hosts. Returning home and reflecting on my time in West Africa I am grateful for the hospitality of our country staff in both Senegal and Guinea, as well as our hosts who we visited in both countries. I am grateful to have better relationships with country staff, as well as more context for on the ground logistics in West Africa, which will help me to be a better recruiter and mobilizer for U.S. volunteers to assist with projects across West Africa as part of the program. I am excited for what the year ahead holds.

From April 22 to May 8, 2019, I had the pleasure of working on a USAID Farmer-to-Farmer assignment in Nzerekore, Guinea, West Africa.  The implementer for the assignment was Winrock International and this organization took very good care of me.  After departing the capital, Conakry, my driver, translator, and I traveled 1000 kilometers by road to Nzerekore.  It took about 22 hours of mostly bone-jarring roads.

Crossing wooden bridge with F2F driver Bailo

Nzerekore is known as the forested region and produces oil palm (locally called red oil), rubber, cacao, and coffee.  As this was my first time working with oil and rubber crops, I learned a lot about growing the crops and how the oil is processed.  It is used locally for cooking and is highly sought after, especially as Ramadan was approaching.

Discussing proper pesticide use in the field

My assignment was specifically to address pesticide safety issues focusing on the appropriate use of pesticide products and in the correct amount.  The group was enthusiastic and asked many good questions.  All of the farmers used glyphosate as an herbicide and much of my time was used to explain how to use the product most effectively.  I use glyphosate on my farm so I was able to give the farmers first-hand knowledge.

Guinea is a warm and friendly country.  I never felt threatened or uncomfortable.  One evening I ate some food that made me a little ill and I had to take a day off from training. The day I was recuperating, a group of 8 farmers came to my hotel to wish me good health and offered to bring me food for a speedy recovery.  The empathy shown was most welcomed.

Translator, Damba, Interpreting sprayer calibration to farmers

Despite the physical hardships in this country, the eagerness of these farmers to learn and the warmth and hospitality they showed, made this assignment a very satisfying experience.

Oil Palm farm family and F2F volunteer David Ringuette

Our third intro blog from the field this week comes from Senegal, a country which speaks over 36 different languages! 

My name is Ndiame Sene (Patrick) I am from a village named Nianing, located south of Dakar. I grew up there until I got my Baccalaureate from our village high school called Lycee Demba Diop.

I came to the University Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar in 2006 and spent two years studying in the English Department. I obtained my driver’s license the year I gave up studies; soon after I got a job with the  Security Guard Agency of Phoenix, Senegal as a delivery man with a motorcycle.

After 4 years, since a had a driver’s license, I thought that with my English knowledge I could get a better job with an American NGO, so I posted an application on a job opportunities website, one week later I was called by Winrock assistant for an interview and that’s when I joined Winrock’s F2f Program.

My hobbies are running and fitness I also love very much to watch soccer games on TV, on weekends to be with my family in my village where I go fishing or swimming at the beach.

With the Winrock F2F Program, I really improved my English by being with volunteers because we spend a lot of time with them in many places and I get to practice a lot. I have also learned a lot from volunteers on topics like website design, fish farming, poultry, fruit and vegetable processing, and horticulture.

I use these skills to help myself and my fellow villagers, for example, I created a website and school presentation document for my village Primary school and that contributed to having many visitors interested in helping the school (my village is in a tourism area; the donations led to getting 2 more classrooms built and the school fenced)

The most interesting part of the work for me is when I pick up a volunteer from the airport, it is the first contact and I am the person to take care of them from the airport to hotel and to the office the day after. I am the person to show them the office and introduce them to all of the Winrock staff, it is a pleasure for me.

I have had very funny moments with volunteers when we visit the monuments, Goree island, or Pink Lake (Lake Retba), like in this photo with my friend Ples Spradley; this was taken after a visit to the [African Renaissance] monument, I had accompanied him to buy art at the market.