In May 2022, volunteer Daniel Lavin was Winrock’s first volunteer to travel from the US to West Africa for the Farmer-to-Farmer program in over 2 years. Dan traveled to Senegal to assist the Fass Jom Association in Financial Farm Management. He, along with country staff, trained a group of mostly women on managing their farming practices so they could take part in the development of their community and improve living conditions. Fass Jom Association’s goal is to establish a modern micro-enterprise capable of generating sufficient income and creating sustainable and economically profitable activities for its members.

Why did you want to volunteer?

For the last few decades, my focus has been on my children and my work.  My kids have moved on and my work requires much less time.  I continually recall memories of my service in the Peace Corps and wished there was a way to get involved with international development.  When I learned about Farmer-to-Farmer and specifically saw that their mission was to teach, I knew I had to get involved.  I’ve been working independently in Sierra Leone, Ghana, and Kenya, but hoped to find organizations that had greater reach to other countries and connections to communities seeking to empower themselves.  In the United States, even big “efforts” seem to have little effect.  When serving with Farmer 2 Farmer, even small “efforts” seem to have a big effect.   The appreciation from the host organizations, from the in-country staff, and from all those I come in contact with feeds the soul.

What was the highlight of being back in the field?

One big highlight from my experience in Senegal was a response from one of the students, a Muslim woman who surprised even herself.  Our focus was on teaching financial literacy, giving the students a chance to learn how to analyze business concepts and make educated decisions to improve profitability.  This woman returned to the training with a “spring in her step,” anxious to update the others.  She had returned home to educate her husband on the concepts of tracking revenue, identifying labor and material costs, comparing financial models, and creating a budget.  Even though he ran the family business, they both realized that her new skills would serve them both and help improve their financial situation.  It wasn’t our aim to create a cultural “shift,” but the result was amazing.  The other students applauded with delight.

What advice would you give a new volunteer?

The most important skills you can bring are flexibility, respect, creativity, and humility.  The more you can encourage active participation, questions instead of answers, and the willingness to “pivot,” the more likely you are to achieve success. Don’t try and solve all problems prior to your arrival; you really need to see the issues in context and listen to the host prior to making even the most basic suggestions.

How do you feel that your volunteer assignment has contributed to creating a shared understanding across different cultures through person-to-person interactions?

As I grow older, I realize how little I know, but I maintain the willingness to learn.  I believe I contribute to a shared understanding from culture to culture by having everyone become a student and a teacher.  We all have something to share, and a lot to learn.

What, if anything, has surprised you on your assignments?

The world has become very small.  In 1988 it took me 54 hours to travel to Sierra Leone.  Letters took three months to arrive, and phone calls were reserved for emergencies.  World events meant little unless you were able to hear a faint BBC broadcast.  Now, travel takes half the time.  Emails are instantaneous, pictures and videos can be shared in real-time, and news reaches even the most remote villages.  This new reality allows me to participate in amazing communities, and share events with friends and family all over the world.  When the assignment ended, friendships built are maintained.

How does your experience affect your worldview?

Americans often think that development means “how do we make the world more like us?”  That is NOT my worldview.  Everyone lives with different challenges, unique cultural approaches, and solutions that make the world interesting.  I feel fortunate that I get to witness such differences, and then share these experiences.

In January 2022, Adama Pouye from Senegal and Nancy Scott from the United States, came together to help the women of Cooperation of the Networks of Users of the Consular Agricultural Training and Transformation Unit (RUUFTAC) create new and improved products to sell in their communities. 

In Senegal, there is a market for bakery products made from local cereals and women are looking for ways to boost their incomes by offering high-quality baked products. Using the new paired model, created during the COVID pandemic to overcome the inability to travel, US volunteers are matched up with a Senegalese volunteer to jointly plan and offer training. Taking full advantage of available technology, Nancy and Adama met over Zoom and communicated via email and WhatsApp to create a training plan tailored for RUUFTAC. Together they helped teach the women of RUUFTAC new techniques to make nutritious baked products using local grains such as millet, corn, rice, and black eye peas. One of the training participants during the training said “We did not believe that pastry can be made from local cereals. Our cereals have more value than we expected.’’

Based on their information gathering with association members and her own experience in the US, Nancy adapted, tested, and proposed recipes. Together Adama and Nancy finalized recipes and planned the training. Adama then provided hands-on demonstrations for how to make corn cakes, millet madeleines, corn birthday cakes with buttercream and chocolate, peanut butter cookies, local cereal fritters, buns, croissants, and black eye pea and pumpkin bread. All of which were delicious according to Farmer-to-Farmer Country Directer, Abibou Diaw, who had the lucky job of being a taste tester for this assignment!

US volunteer joins via zoom to watch the participants try her recipes

Most of the participants have already taken some initiative to implement what they have learned. Some are making healthy children’s snacks from the recipes shared. “Adama and Nancy’s team gave us new and enriching baking techniques. We learned a lot from the local grains available. My little store in front of my house will have new products and attract more customers” Ndeye Seynabou Dieng, member of the cooperative. The goal of this training was to enable the women of RUUFTAC to earn extra income while also creating nutrious items for their community, as a bonus, buying local cereals also helps small-scale farmers in local communities. When women are empowered to use their skills and knowledge, everyone benefits. Thank you to Adama and Nancy for reaching across an ocean and working together to bring their knowledge to RUUFTAC!

National volunteer, Adama, tastes one of the new recipes developed by US volunteer Nancy and baked by a member of RUUFTAC

After 6 years at the helm of the Farmer-to-Farmer team in Senegal, our beloved Mama Toure retires today. 

Before she started with Winrock in June 2014, Mama became a member of the Africa Women Leaders in Agriculture and Environment (AWLAE) network that Winrock helped form and strengthen in the 1980s. She received her Master’s in International Agriculture Education from the University of Arizona and spent several years working for the Senegalese Ministry of Agriculture and for the Food and Agriculture Organization. Mama’s leadership and spirit has led one of our largest West Africa Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) teams and she will be very much missed! Her work with volunteers and host organizations have helped shape the program in Senegal and left a lasting impact. During her tenure, she has overseen 124 volunteer assignments that dedicated 2,330 days to F2F. These volunteer assignments resulted in 7,936 hectares under improved technology, $2,130,983 in host income, and nearly 5,000 people trained! Mama retires to her farm where she keeps fruit trees, poultry, and livestock. A genuine, warm, and dedicated leader, Mama will truly be missed! 

I learned from Mama that working as a team makes you succeed and sharing responsibility makes the job easier. I miss her already! Patrick, Ndiame Sene, F2F driver, Senegal

Mama has been a role model to staff, program beneficiaries and our volunteers. I appreciate how much she believed in her team members and invested in building their capacity. DeAnn McGrew, Director of Global Programs

Mama has been a great colleague and we are sad to see her go. I hope she works as hard at relaxing as she did during her working life! Mike Bassey, Country Director F2F Nigeria

Her warm spirit, passion for the work we do, and keen expertise in the field will be sorely missed. Jennifer Robinson, F2F Recruiter

I will especially remember Mama taking me to her pride and joy – her farm. Her retirement is well deserved but sad for me. But I shall return to Senegal at some point in the future and look forward to seeing her then. Monica Norley, F2F Volunteer

Mama was so welcoming and helpful to me during my two volunteer assignments in Senegal. The staff under her direction took better care of me than I could have ever imagined. I could not have asked for a better country director and host. She invited me to her family’s celebration of Tabaski and it was like being a member of a wonderful family. She is a true professional and has provided tremendous service to her country through her work with Winrock. Something tells me there are a lot of volunteers that can share the same sentiments about Mama. Ples Spradley, F2F Volunteer

Mama is an open and friendly person who cares about others. I will miss her morning greetings and bright smile. Abibou Diaw, our new Country Director F2F Senegal

Mama with Winrock HQ team and her fellow Country Directors from Nigeria, Guinea, Nepal, Myanmar, and Bangladesh

I’m so grateful for Mama’s spirit, leadership, and care that she has put in to building the Senegal team. After so much hard work, I hope she enjoys her retirement – it is well deserved.
Jen Snow, F2F Program Director

Continuing on with our Field Staff introductions- we are now doing a series on our excellent accountants. They make sure our finances are in order and our day to day operations move smoothly. As is true of most of our field staff, they work closely with colleagues that they have never met, including at HQ in the US, so being able to communicate across time zones, cultures and email is extremely important. It also makes any chance to meet the folks you work with a fun and interesting experience, which Justina got to do when she traveled to Nairobi to receive training on new systems and processes. 

Hi, I am Alamba, Justina Kangyang. Finance & Admin. Manager for the West Africa Farmer-to-Farmer Project- Nigeria. I have been on the F2F project for 3 years 5 months now and have 12 years’ experience in development work. It may also interest you to know that Winrock International gave me my first opportunity in development work on the Aids Impact Mitigation (AIM) project for three and a half years. I am an associate member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and with an MBA degree from the Nigerian Defense Academy, a post-graduate diploma from Obafemi Awolowo University and Higher National Diploma (HND) in Accounting from the Plateau State Polytechnic, Barkin Ladi. My Secondary education was at St. Louis College, Jos and primary education at RCM Primary School, Giring, Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria.

I am one individual who loves to laugh a lot, watch Hispanic telenovelas and playing phone games.

My work experience over the years: I am currently the Finance and Administrative Manager as stated earlier. Before joining Winrock, I worked as the Awards Coordinator with USAID funded Systems Transformed for Empowered Actions and Enabling Responses for VCs (STEER) project, as the State Finance Officer – Niger with the DFID funded State Accountability and Voice Initiative (SAVI) project, and at the Accountant Health Hub, where I managed funds under the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded Informed Decisions for Actions to Improve Maternal and Newborn Health (IDEAS) project. I developed the budget which won Health Hub the project. Before getting into the development sector I worked at Plateau State Ministry of Science and Technology as a Data Processing Officer and at Crest Hotel & Gardens as Receptionist/Cashier.

Justina, Ibrahim, and Souleyman in Nairobi

With Winrock, I have had the opportunity to experience multi-project reporting on the MARKETS, SAFE, REEP and F2F. I have gained more experience in project closeouts over the years. I love the fact the financial reporting has been revolutionized from excel to QuickBooks and electronic documentation. This new system has made work more interesting and educating. I am one who loves learning new skills and I am excited to say that I have learned to upload wire request and documents on SharePoint, using DocuSign, and how to have effective meetings on Skype. All those remote sessions with the IT team are a wonderful experience and a boost to my IT skills.  I bet my colleagues in finance were as excited as I was at the finance training in Kenya. Putting faces to names I have worked with for years has a good feeling too it. I had a swell time with Souleyman and Ibrahim (both accountants from Guinea) at the KICC, where we viewed Nairobi from the tower. Getting to meet Shawn Cathey and Mike Myers? Wow, that was the bomb and the Nairobi team, Nicodemus, Arthur, and Veronica were all really cool. It was such a nice experience having Nicodemus come over to Nigeria to coach me on QuickBooks and now I am a bundle of knowledge on the software. I look forward to learning more with the advent of the new Regional Controller.

Justina with the other Winrock Accountants Ibrahim and Souleyman

Working with the Nigeria team is homely, with Mike Bassey heading the team it’s joyous. When I lost my grandma in October last year, the support I got was amazing. I am fortunate to have a team like this one and I am glad I am part of this amazing organization. Overall my experience in Winrock is one in a million. I will not forget to mention my ladies back there at HQ, Loretta, and Sherri, are wonderful to work with. It was lovely meeting Sherri during her last visit to Nigeria and I look forward to meeting Loretta, someday in the future.

Ibrahim, Shawn, Justina and Mike in Nairobi

The fourth in our series of introductory blogs again comes from Senegal, which has the largest number of Winrock F2F staff in-country. 

My name is Youssouph Sane and I’m one of the Winrock Drivers. After I earned a Baccalaureate degree I joined the Army for two years where I got my military driving license which afterward turned it to a civil driving license.

I then worked for security companies like Phoenix and Sagam. For Sagam, I was posted as a vigil in a bank. After work, I used to volunteer as a driving school instructor for one year and a half. I was inspired when English people who came to the bank needed help and I struggled to give them information with my low-level English. So I started English classes for four hours a week. It was not enough for me but it was fine. After 4 years I got a promotion as a driver in the Sagam security company so I  stopped English classes. It was an opportunity and an experience for me to become familiar with Senegalese traffic regulations and I realized really how hard it is to drive in a big city like Dakar for more than eight hours a day or at night without stopping. One day, as I was passing by Winrock’s office I saw the Winrock sign and thought to apply for a job; so I did and was called for an interview. A couple of weeks later I got the job.

My favorite pastimes are exercising; watching soccer and movies on tv; being with my lovely daughters and conversing with people.

Working for an American company was my dream because of their hardworking attitude, seriousness, and pay. It is also an opportunity to improve my English.

I have learned a lot from F2F volunteers about pruning, making compost, and constructing drip irrigation from local material but I haven’t applied any of the volunteers’ technique so far because I have yet to have the opportunity. Volunteers helped me a lot because being with them pushes me to practice English and now I know many things about American culture.

Pick up/drop off, assisting for the volunteers and supporting the staff are the most interesting parts of my job.

Once there was a volunteer who didn’t find her luggage when she arrived at Dakar’s airport. So we canceled the trip for the next day; therefore, she stayed in Dakar longer than planned. In order to catch up and not change her training agenda, we had to make the return trip in one day, therefore, we traveled the whole day from Kolda to Dakar (a 7-10 hour car ride) and it was very tough journey because of the distance.

Senegal Team