My mother-in-law has lived a long and full life because of the kindness and sacrifices made by an American volunteer. She loves to tell the story of her life and how her daughter was saved by a daring doctor during the Nigerian Civil War.

In 1967, she was in labor for one week and risked losing her child. At this time medical facilities; where they existed in any form, were either destroyed through air raids or their personnel had fled to safety. In the face of extreme danger, she and her husband sneaked under the cover of darkness to the sounds of gunfire and mortar into a nearby medical facility where an American doctor worked. On arrival at the medical facility, they were met by the lonely figure of a night watchman. He was there to guard the American doctor as she waited for the next evacuation by her home government.

The situation at the medical facility seemed hopeless. The building where thousands of lives had been saved was destroyed during an air raid; power supply to the medical facility was also affected, there was neither personal protective equipment nor basic equipment required for this level of medical work available. However, as in the case of Farmer-to-Farmer volunteers; in the eyes of this doctor, there was a glimmer of hope. The volunteer doctor chose to help this couple despite the challenges and the danger she herself faced. Within a few hours of arriving at the medical facility, the baby was born, the weeklong trauma had ended, and mother and baby were in good health.

Then the beleaguered couple awoke to the realization that they had no toiletries, napkins, baby clothes, etc. More so, the couple and their baby who were deemed discharged on arrival had no means to return home that night since their safety wasn’t guaranteed inside the hospital.

Going above and beyond, the volunteer doctor did not only provide her skills and the materials for the satisfactory execution of her work, she again filled the gap by volunteering to drive the couple and their newborn baby that night back to their village. The couple were eternally grateful to this doctor but were worried whether she ever made it back safely to the medical facility. They later heard from the lonely night watchman, that ‘the American government came and took the Doctor home;’ meaning that she made it back safely to the medical facility.

The above story has often made me reflect on volunteerism and the motivating factors for people to help one another, even under precarious circumstances. While Winrock’s Farmer-to-Farmer volunteers are never in danger like the volunteer who helped my mother in law, they certainly face challenging situations during their Farmer-to-Farmer assignments. Every Farmer-to-Farmer assignment is unique, and every volunteer is equally unique. Every volunteer has a similar or more touching story written or told about them. Stories they may never get to read or hear told.

My mother in law has met many of our Farmer-to-Farmer volunteers while they have been in Nigeria. The actions of the volunteer doctor many years ago eternally endeared her to Farmer-to-Farmer volunteers. When I asked her why she told me; ‘… they are humble and committed, they are also friendly, they respect our cultures, they are ever-ready to learn and to share, they work and make the best use of what materials they find around, they are exposed to all kinds of risks … the work these volunteers do is invaluable.’

Whether volunteers are on the frontlines providing support in a time of war, or poverty, or hunger, or infectious disease, volunteers are one and the same – they are motivated by the need to give. Like my parent’s in-law, these volunteers understand that there are risks. Like the American doctor, volunteers know the potential risks – measurable and hard to measure risks; however, to these folks, the benefits of one saved life and the sanctity of life far outweighs the challenges posed.

At this point and on this occasion of National Volunteer Week 2020 in the United States, I join the good-hearted people of the United States of America and the millions of people the world over whose lives have been impacted in one way or the other by F2F volunteers to doff my hat in honor of this group of wonderful people. I would also like to appreciate volunteers across the world who have given up their safety, time, personal comfort, and other resources and to help the most vulnerable through the COVID-19 crisis – these are the real heroes of our time.

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps, and 59 years later we take this week to celebrate all the ways Peace Corps has made a difference at home and abroad.  Since 1961, more than 240,000 Americans have served our country and the global community as Peace Corps Volunteers, living and working alongside local leaders to catalyze change. Under USAID’s Farmer-to-Farmer Program, Winrock has partnered with the National Peace Corps Association to tap into this network of Peace Corps alums in order to field highly skilled and experienced volunteers to West Africa. In addition, Winrock has also created connections with the Peace Corps in Guinea and Senegal to facilitate training and technical assistance. Peace Corps Volunteers and their counterparts are then able to bring the knowledge and skills they learn back to their communities, increasing the spread and impact of Farmer-to-Farmer Volunteers. In honor of Peace Corps Week, we thank all volunteers, past and present, each time you give your expertise and time you help build the future! 

“We females eat what is left.” That was just one of the many tough issues discussed on ways to reduce malnutrition during the first Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) partnership assignment between Winrock and the Peace Corps/Guinea. By all accounts, this strategy of F2F volunteers working with Peace Corps Volunteers and their volunteer counterparts in a practical skills workshop was a success.

The objective of the trip, titled Training of Trainers (TOT) in Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture and Behavior Change, required integration between multiple disciplines. The assignment challenged me to put the experience I had gained on linking agricultural resources to solving nutritional problems for the past 40 years.  The undertaking necessitated using an approach which would be a dance between the art of communication and the science of agriculture, food and nutrition.

My main task was to facilitate a TOT workshop with Peace Corps Volunteers and local volunteer counterparts from their community on how to use behavioral change communications (BCC) to help households make their agricultural investments more nutrition-sensitive (NSA) as well as more specific in order to close their identified dietary gaps.

The challenge I faced was clear in the preparation stage. Unlike some other African countries, there is little written about Guinea, especially its agriculture and nutrition situation, and this made designing a quality program even more tricky as the trainees were not experienced outreach professionals in either agriculture, nutrition or behavioral change communications.  Moreover, for most of the local participants, this was their very first experience attending a workshop so far from home. These many challenges resulted in multiple emails with draft documents going back and forth between me and the Peace Corps staff (host) as well as with Winrock/ Guinea staff.

After arriving in Guinea and holding initial briefings with F2F Winrock and Peace Corps management staff in Conakry, I proceeded with 12 people in a single-vehicle for 125 miles — an 8-hour drive — to Mamou. The road, if one could call it that, was certainly one for the record books. I nicknamed it the “Shake, Rattle, and Roll” road adventure.

The venue for the workshop was Guinea’s forestry center, Ecole Nationale des Agents Techniques des Eaux et Forets (ENATEF), just outside of Mamou City. The site was wonderful as the center was surrounded by forest with all its diverse vegetation and sounds. Its magnificent diversity served as a living laboratory for the practicum exercises.

One of the big workshop communication challenges faced right off the bat was the need to work in five languages at the same time: English, French, Malinke, Pulaar and Soussou.  Fortunately, we had with us Peace Corps staff who spoke at least one of the three local languages. Having worked in similar multiple language situations throughout my career, the workshop was designed from the start to have lots of small group work so that the participants could carry on in their language group, thus reducing the time needed for multiple translations.

Since the term “Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture” is still evolving within the global community of practice, the group decided to operationalize NSA according to their local situation. They essentially agreed that it meant practical actions that could be taken throughout a crop’s cycle to enhance and or preserve the nutrient quality of that crop.

As the workshop took shape, a distinct trend was emerging.  Some Peace Corps Volunteers were keen to learn about the technical aspects of growing certain crops, especially the ones they were introducing to their community as part of their 2-year assignment: orange-fleshed sweet potato and moringa, while their Guinean counterparts seemed more interested in exploring effective way to communicate specific behavioral changes that need to be made so that home food systems are nutrient- and nutrition-sensitive.

It became clear that while technical improvements and solutions were identified by the group for improving crop production and post-production as well as dietary intake issues, culture seems to trump every technical subject — hence the importance of identifying strategic BCC messages for each issue.

Through group discussions, a few Peace Corps Volunteers began to understand that in order to have a few “quick wins” and build credibility with their community during their two-year assignment, they should look at ways to enhance post-harvest through improvements in existing practices. Their emphasis on the introduction and acceptance of new crops by subsistence households, while important, takes longer than their assignment time.

There were four key themes that came up continuously:

• Start with what households were doing right with their food system. The good news is that households already grow a wide variety of crops consisting of a large diversity of calorie- and nutrient-dense crops and their main meal is complete as it consists of a starch (usually rice) with a sauce (oil, legume and a dark green leafy vegetable). One of the key challenges mentioned by the participants was not so much technical issues but their cultural traditions around who eats what and in what order.
• Identify gaps in their cropping system, usually more vegetable protein (peas, beans, legumes) and in their household meals, especially for the most at risk nutritionally (mothers and young children)
• Identify local solutions based on existing knowledge, skills and resources. If it is not available at the local market, forget it as a “solution.”
• Identify a range of locally acceptable behavioral change methods that a household can do with minimal disruption to their existing food consumption pattern.

By the end of the five-day exercise, the workshop participants had designed their own location-specific illustrated communication materials for use with their community as well as a clear roadmap of activities for closing dietary gaps from existing crops. Clearly, they valued the experiential learning approach and could see that their malnutrition issues were solvable by tweaking the use of the resources they have now.

A bonus from the training was the Peace Corps staff indicated that their own capacity had been built as a result of this exercise, especially regarding behavioral change messaging. One long term outcome of this assignment is that the Peace Corps staff will be presenting this NSA/BCC workshop to its Peace Corps Volunteers going forward.

In sum, it was my pleasure to work with this group of volunteers who live in hardship conditions and yet showed so much dedicated to finding solutions together.

To read about a Peace Corps Volunteers experience you can go here:

https://winrock.org/volunteer_blog/voices-from-the-field/

Volunteer with the members of the Association of Mushroom Producers Ashanti (AoMPA)

As I am stepping into my eighties, I recognize nothing more rewarding than being associated with scientific research and being able to reach out and help our society and the international community. The latter became possible for me via the wonderful oyster mushroom.  I am thankful for the Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) program, funded by USAID, for opening up the wide world of serving and helping my fellow human beings in developing communities improve the quality of their food enriched with mushroom protein.

Discussion with the group outside, using the flip chart

This time it was in Kenyasi in the Ashanti region of Ghana, Africa. This was my third assignment in Ghana. The wonderful oyster mushroom is lending itself for cultivation and fruiting against all the odds of unfavorable conditions. The group I trained is a small association of mushroom growers and they are highly motivated and interested, but they are in need of more technical skills when growing crops of this kind. For many years they used narrow neck soda bottles for spawn preparation and small heat resistant plastic bags for the partially composted sawdust as a substrate for cultivation. It works but was rather inefficient, slow and cumbersome. Then they reached out for training.

Volunteer demonstrating the use of a HEPA filter he brought for constructing a Laminar Flow Hood

We adapted the small heat resistant plastic bags of theirs to be spawn bags instead of the soda bottles and worked together to increase their awareness of and ability to use other plant materials readily available in their environments such as banana leaves, and coconut husks. Of course, other kinds of hay, grain plant stalks, and straw are also useful. Specifically, this nation is becoming self-sufficient with rice cultivation making rice stalks their primary alternative as a substrate for mushroom cultivation. The training was mainly held in an outdoor classroom, often moving inside to the group’s mushroom incubation room. So it allowed the participant’s good exercise each time they had to move their chairs back and forth.

The presentations were centered on discussions rather than just a one-way lecture. The group particularly liked using the flip paper chart as it will stay as an open document for them. We enjoyed making a mushroom pie, mushroom pizza, pickled mushroom, and mushroom kababs, using their high tech charcoal oven.

Making and trying the mushroom pizza!

Ms. Neelam Canto-lugo, adjunct professor at Yuba College in California, signed the agreement with EnerGaia on May 12, 2019, to provide financial support that will help develop women contract farmers for household production of spirulina in order to generate new income opportunities and empower women in rural Bangladesh. EnerGaia is a private company focusing on spirulina production, processing, and marketing of fresh spirulina and value-added spirulina products to Thailand, Singapore, and India.

Ms. Canto-lugo came to Bangladesh multiple times in between 2017 and 2018 as a volunteer to help the youth entrepreneurship development initiative of Winrock International’s Asia Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F, 2013-2018) Program funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). She conducted training on soft skills development, women empowerment, and curriculum development to build the capacity of the trainers and youth beneficiaries. She was also a recipient of Farmer-to-Farmer Volunteer of the Year Award. 

After the Asia F2F project closed in September 2018, Ms. Canto-lugo kept in touch with the Winrock staff and her past hosts. She traveled to Bangladesh using her own funds to follow-up on the progress of the organizations and their beneficiaries, as well as conducted further training.

During one of these follow-up visits, Ms. Canto-lugo connected with the staff of the USAID Feed the Future Asia Innovative Farmers Activity (AIFA, 2015-2019) project, implemented by Winrock. Through those connections, she met with EnerGaia Bangladesh representatives and visited their spirulina research lab at the Department of Horticulture of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University in Dhaka. She learned about EnerGaia’s initiative to implement spirulina contract farming focused on providing income opportunities for rural women. Impressed with the potential benefits for the rural women, Ms. Canto-lugo promised to provide financial support for EnerGaia.

AIFA’s main mandate is to source, validate and market innovative agricultural technologies and practices for improving the lives of rural farmers. EnerGaia was selected competitively as one of the companies that would have its spirulina production technology tested and validated in Bangladesh’s local context. The AIFA project supported EnerGaia’s expansion into Bangladesh to benefit communities in need of more nutritious food and additional income opportunities. The project also worked to find funding opportunities for EnerGaia to establish a pilot spirulina production village in Khulna to empower women through improved livelihoods. Currently, EnerGaia is establishing a Spirulina Production and Training Center in Batiaghata Upazilla, Khulna District to train and develop spirulina contract farmers.

In May 2019, Ms. Neelam Canto-lugo returned to Bangladesh using her own funds and signed the agreement with EnerGaia to provide financial support. She visited the location of the spirulina production training center and met with the local women. Ms. Canto-lugo’s support will help develop 30 women spirulina contract farmers in Batiaghata under the EnerGaia contract farming model. These women will receive hands-on training from EnerGaia and a system consisting of 20 tanks (for each person) along with other essentials to produce spirulina. EnerGaia will provide technical assistance to the contract farmers for the production and buy back 80% of the production and encourage the rest 20% for family consumption. The initiative could change the lives of the women and their families and empower them with their own sources of income.

Winrock International is known for our work across the globe and throughout the United States, but we maintain strong roots in Arkansas, where our work began.

Along with our headquarters, Winrock Initiatives like Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub are still based out of Arkansas. Our U.S. Programs division continues work in Arkansas as well like our work with Lake Village, Arkansas over the past decade, leading to community revitalization.

Winrock also ensures that our roots stay deeply planted by engaging people from across the state of Arkansas in our Volunteer Programs. We have had a multitude of Arkansas farmers and professionals volunteer, but another way we have engaged is through University Partnerships, which have included volunteers from University of Central Arkansas, University of Arkansas, University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, and University of Arkansas at Monticello, in addition to our 11-year partnership with University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service. According to Tiffany Jacob, Director of International Programs and Outreach at the Clinton School, “Clinton School students have partnered with Winrock International on all three types of field service projects required: Practicum, International Public Service Projects, and Capstone.”

Partnerships began with Class 1 at the Clinton School with student Nancy Mancilla completing her Capstone Project with Winrock International’s Rural Energy Program in 2008. Jacob stated, “A more formal partnership between Winrock International and the Clinton School’s Office of Community Engagement began in 2016 thanks to Jen Snow, Associate Director of Agriculture & Volunteer Programs and F2F Director, and former Clinton School Assistant Director of Field Service, James Mitchell (now Senior Program Associate, Agriculture & Volunteer Programs at Winrock). Together they developed a clear process for placing students with Winrock teams in the field to complete projects. The placements are highly competitive among students and, based on student feedback, have proven to be some of the most rewarding projects academically, professionally, and personally.” Many of these projects through the formal partnership are USAID funded Farmer to Farmer Program projects.

Following are some experiences from Clinton School students in their own words:

Sara Swisher – Practicum (2017-2018)

“I was on a practicum team with three other Clinton School students (Wesley Manus, Wesley Prewett, John Mensah) at the Wallace Center at Winrock International. Our project was to create a recommendations report for how the Wallace Center can engage with community food and agriculture organizations in Arkansas. The biggest lesson I took away from the experience was learning how to work on a team. My favorite part of that project was being able to interview different organizations and learn more about Arkansas and its rich agricultural history. These takeaways helped me in my other field projects in Peru and Little Rock.”

Click here for a Clinton School Blog on this Project

Kirby Richardson – International Public Service Project (2018)

Kirby Richardson

“I was lucky enough to be accepted for a position with Winrock International as part of a project in Yangon, Myanmar. My job over the summer was to support the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) team with the Value Chains for Rural Development project.”

“Something that I learned from this experience is that, while I have traveled extensively for pleasure and for study, no experience can adequately prepare you for working abroad besides the actual act of working abroad. It did not seem like it would be such a different experience from studying abroad for a semester, but it certainly is. Life moves differently within the professional context, and I suspect that that is true regardless of where you are. Interpersonal relationships matter in different ways. Communication takes on a different form, often more practical than cerebral. Consequences for mistakes can be more severe. Expectations are often higher, and time is often in much shorter supply. Add those stresses to the stress of having to engage with a new culture, a new context, and a new set of expectations; that is what it is challenging about working abroad. Luckily, the VC-RD staff are excellent mentors, and each of them taught me a great deal about the joys, and the challenges, of international work.”

After graduation from Clinton School, Kirby will be completing an additional volunteer assignment in Myanmar with VC-RD.

Wes Manus – International Public Service Project (2018)

“Working with Winrock International on USAID’s Asia Farmer-to-Farmer Program was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. The geography, people, and cultures broadened my horizons and allowed me to conduct final impact surveys of Winrock’s work in Bangladesh and Nepal. The experience gave me the opportunity to interact with young entrepreneurs, farmers, and university students focused on improving the lives of women and youth to develop a new generation of leaders.”

“In Nepal, young entrepreneurs are starting new businesses and disseminating agricultural technologies. In Bangladesh, women-led initiatives are supplementing family incomes with small-scale agriculture and improving their self-determination. In both countries, agricultural universities are implementing water efficiency methods and advanced breeding techniques to reduce environmental impact and improve yields for fish farmers.”

“Winrock’s cadre of expert volunteers, with deep knowledge in everything from business development and public speaking to goat rearing and advanced breeding, are the heart of these improvements in people’s lives. In the short-term, people are able to better help themselves and improve their livelihoods. In the long-term, the literal and figurative seeds planted by Winrock’s volunteers are being cultivated by future leaders who will guide their countries through a new generation of prosperity.”

Andrea Zekis – International Public Service Project (2019)

The 10^th collaborative project between Winrock International and Clinton School is scheduled for this summer. Student Andrea Zekis will be working with Winrock in Nepal to support the USAID-funded Feed the Future Knowledge-based Integrated Sustainable Agriculture in Nepal (KISAN) II project with a variety of research and writing activities.

Andrea stated, “I chose Winrock International for my summer International Public Service Project because I felt our interests aligned. I have a background and passion in geographic information systems, I wanted to expand my skill and experience set into matters involving environmental and agricultural issues. The project requires someone with some professional experience in journalism, which is something I possess. Meantime, I get to work in a country which has expanded its civil rights protections to respect the lives of LGBTQ persons like myself. I see the experience working with Winrock International this summer as an opportunity to bring my entire skill set and self into the work, while working with an organization with clearly defined project and professional expectations in areas which I would like to gain experience. When I learned they would allow me the chance to meet and learn from their own GIS specialists as well, I could not pass the opportunity up.”

Patrick McBride – Internship (2019)

I guess it wouldn’t be fair to leave myself out. I am currently a graduate assistant and student at Clinton School, graduating in May. I was attracted to Winrock based on their commitment domestically and internationally, and what I saw as a strong commitment to effective strategies of helping some of the most vulnerable populations. I started an internship at Winrock International in January working with our Agriculture & Volunteer Programs team to mobilize our USAID Farmer-to-Farmer volunteers and help them in the transition from home to their overseas assignments. Since starting, I’ve had the amazing opportunity to engage with passionate volunteers and help connect them with international opportunities.

Here is a list of some other projects Clinton School students have worked on:

2011, Bangladesh (IPSP) – Moksheda Thapa

This project focused on two distinct programs: the Farmer to Farmer project and Rural Enterprise for Alleviating Poverty. For the FTF program, this project produced guidelines for impact monitoring. For the REAP program, this project conducted primary data collection which informed a list of recommendations for increasing the participation of women in the program

2016, Nepal (IPSP) – Sarah Fowlkes

Conducted a mid-term impact assessment to analyze the impact of Training-of-Trainers (TOT) assignments with youth-serving host organizations and informal agriculture education and training (AET) providers in Nepal and Bangladesh.

2017, Guinea, Nigeria, Senegal (IPSP) – Caroline Dunlap

Developed an internship model for in-country young adults enrolled in agricultural programs in Nigeria, Senegal, and Guinea. Dunlap developed a framework that will help educational institutions prepare their students to successfully complete internships and help private sector hosts mentor and prepare them for the workforce.

Since graduation Caroline has completed an additional volunteer assignment in Senegal.

2010, Uganda (Capstone) – Elrina Frost

This project provided recommendations for how GIS could be used with socio-economic data from NUDEIL’s monitoring and evaluation department.

2017, Little Rock (Capstone) – Darlynton Adegor

Developed an Evaluation Framework for the Wallace Center’s Community Based Food Systems Project (CBFSP).