Tag Archives: Training

Disaster Reduction and Gender in the Philippines

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Today is the United Nations International Day for Disaster Reduction. This year’s theme is Women and Girls – the [in]Visible Force of Resilience.

The rural poor suffer greatly from disasters of all kinds every year. It is because of their poverty and often precarious living conditions that they are particularly vulnerable. In many of Heifer International’s projects, we provide training and support in Community Managed Disaster Risk Reduction (CMDRR) Efforts.

Gender roles vary widely between cultures. Although women’s social, economic and cultural position in many societies makes them more vulnerable to natural hazards, they are important agents for change, development and advocacy. For more than four years, Heifer Philippines has worked hard to incorporate women in disaster reduction efforts.

Disaster Reduction: Disaster Drill at a school

Students perform a disaster drill as part of their Community Managed Disaster Risk Reduction Plan. Photo courtesy of Heifer International.

Evelyn Martinez, 39, is a mother, wife, village leader, educator and ardent advocate of CMDRR in Lamba, a coastal village in Legazpi City, Albay. Lamba is a quaint village of 1,286 residents who have suffered countless typhoons, floods, landslides and the fury of the most active volcano in the country, Mayon Volcano. Mayon’s eruptions in December 2009 displaced 12,000 people, causing serious, longterm damage.

“We lacked knowledge and skills, we just left everything to fate, we were scared and helpless, we just looked at these hazards face on and admitted to ourselves that there was nothing we could do to help ourselves. Looking back, our community just realized that lack of knowledge is vulnerability, and vulnerability kills. When Heifer came to our community and extensively trained us on CMDRR, life was never again the same. We are no longer vulnerable, because we understand everything that needs to be done before, during and after hazard events.”

Evelyn became very active in all disaster reduction trainings. In fact, she was chosen to be the CMDRR committee chairwoman in their barangay (village).  She is one of the most knowledgeable resource speakers on disaster reduction in Lamba. She trains other project members, other communities, academics and anybody who wants to learn from Lamba’s disaster reduction experience.

Disaster Reduction Plan

Evelyn shares the risk and capacity map, indicating families living in high-risk areas and where families should go for safety during a disaster. Photo courtesy of Heifer International.

Heifer Philippines’ view on gender roles in disaster reduction is elaborately explained in one of the United Nations documentation on Women and DRR, to wit:

Women and children are particularly affected by disasters, accounting for more than seventy five percent of displaced persons.  In addition to the general effects of natural disaster and lack of health care, women are vulnerable to reproductive and sexual health problems, and increased rates of sexual and domestic violence.  Moreover, gender roles dictate that women become the primary caretakers for those affected by disasters – including children, the injured and sick, and the elderly – substantially increasing their emotional and material work load.  Women’s vulnerability is further increased by the loss of men and/or livelihoods, especially when a male head of household has died and the women must provide for their families.  Post disaster stress symptoms are often but not universally reported more frequently by women than men.

With this reality, the Heifer project families of Lamba took specific gender roles in relation to disaster reduction to heart. Before and during typhoons, Evelyn and the women in the community:

  • Secure family assets, clothing and important documents
  • Prepare food, medicine and first aid kits
  • Prepare other members of the family, especially children, pregnant or nursing mothers, the disabled and the elderly, to evacuate if needed

Older children are tasked with assisting their mothers in food preparation, taking care of younger siblings, running needed errands ensuring their own safety.

These roles are clearly defined and well explained to all families. When facilitating trainings, Evelyn ensures nobody is left out. Everyone has a role to play and can contribute, no matter their conditions.

These roles were put to the test when a strong typhoon hit the community in 2010. Everyone remained safe.

In addition to specific disaster risk reduction trainings from Heifer, the overall improvements in families’ livelihoods has dramatically increased their resilience. Self-help groups form savings groups to ensure that no matter what happens, after each hazard event, the community can easily bounce back. They also plant climate-resistant crops such as sweet potatoes and other root crops to have a secure food supply. They have planted mangroves along coastal areas near their community, which act as windbreakers, protecting the village from destructive winds.

Disaster Reduction: planting mangroves in Lamba

Heifer project participants plant mangroves in Lamba as part of the community's Disaster Risk Reduction efforts. Photo courtesy of Heifer International.

“Preparedness is the key. We cannot be complacent. Hazards can come anytime.  We are prepared, and we know what to do”, Evelyn proudly shared.

“We used to lack knowledge and skills on how to deal with hazards and were always scared out of our wits whenever the typhoon season came, leaving our livelihoods and our very lives to fate. Damage from typhoons caused more hardships to our already poor community. Through the Heifer project, we learned a lot from the Cornerstones and through trainings such as CMDRR. We learned how to take care of our livelihoods and safeguard our lives against disasters and avoid suffering the indignity of just waiting for relief. We have become a disaster resilient community.”

Heifer’s Trainings Continue to Serve Nine Years Later

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After our descent from Kilimanjaro with the group of Elanco employees who are Heifer International supporters, I had the opportunity to visit the Kitomary family in Tanzania.

The Kitomary family farm is a miraculous oasis of organic farming outside the city of Arusha in Tanzania. It wasn’t always that way, though.

Kitomarys on their farm

Photo courtesy of Heifer International

Zodiac Kitomary used to drink away the meager earnings of his family’s simple plantings. He had nothing better to do, he says, no hopeful prospects. Then in 2003, the family received fish fingerlings from Heifer, and later, dairy goats. More importantly, Zodiac says, they received trainings on how to maximize the output of their tiny property and on how to work together.

Tanzania small farm

Photo courtesy of Heifer International

His wife, Ndetaniawa, says Heifer trainings taught a different attitude, calling for husband and wife to work together and value each other. She confronted her husband and asked him to stop drinking. “Now,” she says, “everything that comes from the farm, everything we make, we share together equally.”

And they manage to squeeze a lot out of the farm. One and a half acres, they observe, is not a lot to raise six children on. They’ve enthusiastically adopted all kinds of organic techniques so that every inch of the farm serves more than one purpose.

Goat on Tanzania farm

Photo courtesy of Heifer International

The fish fingerlings the Kitomarys raise are sold all over the region. They have a biogas system run with the dung of their dairy goats, which they continue to breed. And they’re raising specialty crops like herbs, greens, yams and fruit trees.

With their earnings, the family is sending all six children to good schools. One is even at university now.

“Many people are amazed,” Zodiac Kitomary says. “They think I must still be getting financial assistance. But really I just keep applying the training, and that’s what makes it possible.”

Heifer USA Projects Envision the Future

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Editor’s note: This post was written by Heifer’s USA Program Officer Larissa Barry

As a part of the exciting work in the Seeds of Change Project, the Heifer USA team hosted a training in each of the Arkansas and Appalachia project areas in mid-June. Heifer staff from the United States Program including Tamidra Marable, Gretchen Schirmer, Senchel Matthews, Jeffrey Scott and Larissa Barry traveled to each of the trainings to bring our individual and collective expertise to the communities. Working with the growing community coalitions, we guided the communities through a process of collective visioning and then a discussion on the mechanics of project design.

Collective Visions of Seeds of Change Participants in ArkansasIn Arkansas, the training was held Thursday, June 14 in Forrest City.  Over 20 community members attended from across the nine-county region that makes up Seeds of Change.  Working through a participatory process, groups worked to create a visual representation of their collective vision.  They used pictures and words from magazines to show what they expect from their participation in Seeds of Change.  The themes across the collages included hope, change, family, healthy environment, food for all, inclusiveness and success.

Collective vision of Seeds of Change participants in Appalachia

 

The training continued in Appalachia on Tuesday, June 19 in Boone, North Carolina, in a similar fashion. There were just over 20 participants representing the five-county region in the High Country of Appalachia. Many of the themes that came out of their collective visioning exercise were similar to those from Arkansas. Some of the new ideas were that we are on a long journey, the need for quality food, work being trusted for generations and thinking about people from before birth to death.

Seeds of Change ParticipantWhen Heifer works in communities, we believe strongly in the knowledge and power that comes from the collective of ideas and experience from the community. We believe that communities are in charge of their destiny and that they are the only ones who know what is right for them. By guiding groups through this process of collective visioning, we are helping them articulate what they want for a brighter tomorrow. I was honored to be a part of this important work.

Help fund Heifer’s work in Arkansas and Appalachia to help us bring a brighter tomorrow for more communities, families and individuals in our own backyard.

Weekly Article Roundup: Giving the Resources to End Hunger

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As part of Heifer’s 12 Cornerstones, providing training and resources is key in our success of helping to end hunger and poverty. Our long-term solution to ending hunger works with community involvement on teach not just the family receiving the gift, but other families as well.

In order to complete the Cornerstone Training, groups must receive several mandatory trainings such as Nutrition and Hygiene. Check out this video from Maggie Carroll, a Clinton School of Public Service student is who documenting Heifer’s projects in India:

Through our practices, Heifer has also created some pretty cool solutions to many problems people face in third-world countries such as needing renewable and cheap source of fuel. Heifer’s Uganda biogas project has solved just that. InterAction has given Heifer Uganda the “Best Practices and Innovations” award for creating a technique that uses cattle and pig waste to produce methane gas for lighting and cooking.

Through our school and community engagement tools, Heifer has created Read to Feed. Read to Feed is a reading incentive service-learning program that offers global education opportunities. This week we learned that Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, Nobel and Gandhi Prize recipient and human rights activist from South Africa supports the program. 

Given the right resources, we can all be involved in ending hunger and poverty.

Nutrition and Hygiene Training in India

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In order to complete Cornerstone Training, groups involved with Heifer International must first receive several mandatory trainings. India’s office has recently added “Nutrition and Hygiene Training” to its existing set, and luckily for me it was debuted during my field visit.

Avni Malhotra, India’s Country Director, visited a women’s group in the state of Bihar. They talked about water safety and discussed techniques for washing foods and utensils hygienically. The class was a success and everyone had a good time. I probably had the best time of all, so much so in fact, that I was too busy to get photos of the finished product: the amazing home-cooked meal!

Nutrition and Hygene Training 1 from Maggie Carroll on Vimeo.

 

 

Heifer Inspires Rural Youth to Stay Put

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The migration of young people from rural areas to urban in the hope of a better future is common worldwide. This is understandable in many ways, but it can have negative effects overall (urban slums; overloaded urban infrastructure; and an absence of young rural innovators, farmers, caretakers, etc.) What we’ve often seen in our work, however, is that young people engaged in Heifer projects often choose to stay in their rural communities. Doing so allows them to not only remain with their families, but also give back to the community that helped raise them. Clara Alanya of Peru is a great example of this phenomenon.

Clara Alanya is a young leader who has made a difference in her community. Her view of rural life and devotion to her work have enabled her to rise above the exclusion and chauvinism still common in the small farming community of Buenos Aires in Huancavelica, the poorest region in Peru.

Clara grew up in a family that imbued its members with strong values. The oldest of five children, Clara says she felt it was her responsibility to set a good example for her siblings.

When she was 19, her father took her to all the training workshops that the Peruvian Social Studies Center organized in their community. In those workshops, Clara began to think about the potential for development in her community and the possibilities for emphasizing local production and strengthening rural community organizations.

Certain that happiness and success are not to be found only in large cities, she decided to stay and take advantage of all the workshops offered in her community, unlike many young people who migrate to work outside their communities, scorning rural life.

“I went to all the workshops about how to build improved stoves, raise guinea pigs, keep a family garden and raise chickens, and my family and I made changes to our house to make it a healthy home. Now I know all about how to build an improved stove. My neighbors ask me to teach them, and I do it with pleasure.

At such a young age, however, it wasn’t easy to convince others to recognize her leadership. She had to persevere, participating in community assemblies, before she was respected as an outstanding young member of the community.

In 2010, she began participating in a Heifer project called Training Communities to Exercise their Rights to Natural Resources. Clara and other promoters from 40 rural communities received training on legal issues, developing skills for defending rights related to land ownership, water use, food security and climate change.

Clara now shares her knowledge voluntarily, facilitating workshops in her community and neighboring communities.

“I used to be afraid to talk in front of a group, but I lost my fear little by little, thanks to the training workshops. I’ve gained more confidence with the Heifer project, because the facilitators trust me. Now when older people say, ‘Why is she going to teach us? She’s so young!’ I don’t even resent it, because many people do support me and I show them everything I’ve learned.

Clara’s family has also become an example tot he entire community, confronting poverty with perseverance, understanding, and above all, family unity.

“What we do in my family is talk things over. My parents don’t make any decisions without consulting all the members of the family. That way we all agree, and we support each other in everything.

Now 23, Clara is a young woman with many dreams, who is committed to working for her community. She has shown that the most important step toward progress is to shake off the lethargy brought on by conformity and hopelessness, and envision a better future.

Training Makes the Difference

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I wrote in August about Heifer’s trainings in Sierra Leone, and I’ve always known that it makes a huge difference in our project participants’ lives. But a report on a Heifer project in Kenya just crossed my desk that really brought that home.

But first, a side note: I’ve seen and heard comments that ask why Heifer animals cost more than the animals that some other NGOs offer. There are several reasons usually cited by Heifer staff: we also include extensive training in Earth-friendly agriculture; our projects last an average of three years; extensive measurement and followup are always included, which adds to the cost…

But this report that I read today… whoa. It concerns the Homa Bay Orphans Livelihood project in the Nyanza Region of Kenya. The project seeks to address high poverty rates among 5,000 family caregivers of an estimated 30,000 orphans who have lost one or both of their parents to the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

The project story in the report is about Mary Akinyi Ondiek of the Many Mari women’s group. Before joining the group, Mary harvested about 198 pounds of maize from her 1.5 acre plot annually. She habitually depended on buying all the vegetables for her family from a nearby market. As a member of Many Mari, she received gifts of training and later, livestock.

From the report: “Mary and other members planted vegetables and Napier [grass] using the sustainable organic agriculture (SOA) skills they had learned. Mary made compost and used it for planting her crops. Mary was then able to stop buying vegetables from the market, saving her almost 40 cents a day. She sold her surplus vegetables and earned a steady monthly income of $33.33—$200 total during the reporting period. She managed to get about 595 pounds of maize from her land—more than a 220 percent increase!”

Whoa, right? So, even though the prices for Heifer animals via The Most Important Gift Catalog in the World have not been raised since there’s BEEN a catalog, I think you can see that what some consider a higher cost definitely yields a higher impact.

Happy New Year.

Lucio of Peru Shares His Knowledge

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Remember Lucio? He lives on a farm in the practically barren Andean Highlands of Peru, and I was lucky to meet him on my trip this past August. (Two other blog posts here and here about Lucio and his farm.)

Lucio is a great example of the determination and innovativeness of Heifer’s project participants. A constant agricultural experimenter, Lucio has many gifts to share. His primary way of doing so is by holding workshops on his property, where he can show other farmers how to grow vegetables in greenhouses (potatoes are traditionally the only crop successfully grown in this area, so this is a really big deal), harvest fish sustainably from a stream, breed alpacas for only the finest qualities and collect alpaca manure for use as biogas.

We recently had staff from our Heifer Peru team, and I discovered they have a video that will help bring Lucio to light in a way my own words cannot. It’s a little on the long side, but I think it’s worth it.

Heifer Uganda Farmers Pass on the Gift to Ugandan Youth

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Would you be surprised if I told you Ugandan kids don’t want to be farmers? Probably not. Kids in the United States don’t often mention agriculture as a career goal, either. Unfortunately for us, we’ve had kind of an “oops” moment as our farmers grow older, retire and die off, having passed on little or none of their agricultural knowledge. Granted, much of the farming done in the United States is on huge (huge!) farms using enormous machinery, so we’re already far removed from the time when most of our population was directly involved in agriculture. In fact, agriculture only comprises 1.2 percent of our Gross Domestic Product and accounts for less than 0.7 percent of our labor force.

In Uganda, however, agriculture makes up 22.5 percent of the GDP and occupies 82 percent of the labor force. In a country with more than a third of its population living in poverty and one of the highest population growth rates in the world, being able to feed its own people needs to be a priority for Uganda.

So what’s Uganda to do when the reality is that their youth are showing a declining interest in agriculture?

That’s the question taken on by Shamim Okolloh, a Clinton School of Public Service student. In her most recent blog post, she wrote:


The Challenge: How do we get the youth interested in farming vs. office jobs and change their perception from viewing it as a dirty job for old people deep in the village to one that can be a source of livelihood and food security, a means to create jobs, and opportunity to make Uganda a food basket for the region?


The Idea: Get the students out of the classroom where agriculture is theory based (and mostly geared towards just passing exams) and have them meet with farmers in the area (peri-urban) who can share their stories on the benefits, opportunities and challenges of farming.


Heifer farmer demonstrates banana plant propagation.

Two wonderful Heifer International project participants–Mrs. Makoba & Mr. Wamimbi were more than happy to Pass on the Gift of knowledge to the next generation of 33 students and nine teachers. Here is a little of what the six-hour experience was like.


What gift are you passing on to the next generation?

~Shamim O.

Livestock and Training Help Fight HIV/AIDS

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Today is World AIDS Day. This year’s theme is “Getting to Zero,” with a commitment to zero new HIV infections, zero AIDS-related deaths and zero discrimination.

Our two-pronged strategy to help fight the HIV/AIDS pandemic, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, is to a) provide livestock to increase incomes so impoverished families can afford AIDS medication and b) teach sustainable farm methods integrating livestock with crop production to add protein to family diets so the AIDS medicine will be more effective.

Our work in the field has other positive effects that will help us “Get to Zero.” Watch these short videos to hear it directly from our participants.

Heifer Improves the Nutrition and Health of People Living with HIV/AIDS


Heifer Helps HIV/AIDS Orphans


Heifer Helps End Discrimination Against Survivors