Growing Knowledge & Building Partnerships

This post was written by F2F volunteer Dan Krull after returning from the field in Haiti. I have returned to Haiti to continue to work with improving goat husbandry practices on the island. This was my second trip to Haiti with the Farmer-to-Farmer Program to work with improving goat husbandry practices on the island. Whereas my first trip to Haiti in December 2014 was more focused on the immediate crises of rampant internal parasitism, this trip revolved around teaching and establishing sound goat nutrition programs for the farmers that Partners of the Americas and  Makouti Agro Enterprise have partnered with. There are two types of plants that I focused on either introducing to the region or augmenting in goat pastures: plants that have natural antihelmintic (anti-parasitic) properties, and those that are high in protein and other essential nutrients. The anthelmintic property of plants is most often due to the tannin contained in the plants. This substance, which is the same...

Last week, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) hosted Melinda Gates to speak as part of their Smart Women, Smart Power series. The title of her discussion was "Women and Girls: Engines for Development". Our intern, Rebecca Lamb, was able to attend this event. Please see her reflections on the event below: As part of CSIS’s Smart Women, Smart Power series, I attended a talk called, “Women and Girls: Engines of Development,” featuring Melinda Gates of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  When talking about the work of the Gates Foundation, Mrs. Gates talked about the necessary partnership between scientific innovations and progress in solving problems in the developing world, such as the need for research for vaccine development, and the potential of GMO crops to address global hunger.  Melinda Gates, interviewed by Nina Easton Mrs. Gates was also asked about the Foundation’s current focus of putting women and girls front and center when ...

Dominican students at a nearby school participated in some of the environmental education activities In February 2015, F2F volunteers Maria Moreno and Rick Hall traveled to Jarabacoa, Dominican Republic to work with the Escuela Nacional del Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales de Jarabacoa, which trains students in environmental management, forestry, park management, eco-tourism and other related fields. Moreno and Hall went to help the school enhance students' knowledge and practice of environmental education and community outreach. Faculty and staff were involved in a week-long planning process for the development of a demonstration rain garden at the Environmental School, and participated in watershed exploration along the Jimenoa River. F2F volunteers, Rick Hall and Maria Moreno, lead hands-on learning at the Jarabacoa School Because environmental education is important for all age groups, the Colaboración Ambiental partnership was created between the Environmental ...

Happy Mother’s Day! Here at Partners of the Americas Agriculture and Food Security Team, we treasure mothers. There have been numerous articles about the positive effects of empowering and educating women, especially mothers, in developing nations (click the links to read more). Everyone knows how powerful mothers can be, and the mothers that work with the AFS Team are no exception. Back in March, we posted this blog entry for International Women’s Day about the Mother Leaders in the Haiti Nutrition Security Program, highlighting the inspiring work that Magalie Hubbert is doing in her community.  To honor World Health Day, we shared the story of Simone Fertile’s efforts educating about child nutrition, and then we celebrated the graduation of a Mother Leader class at the end of April. But that’s not all- recently Justin Hackworth (@justinhackworth on twitter) traveled down to observe and photograph some of the Mother Leader’s in action, working in their communities to ...

This post was written by F2F Volunteer Robert Spencer from the field in Guatemala. I have volunteered internationally since 2006, worked in Haiti, El Salvador, Myanmar, and now Guatemala.  April 26, 2015 began my first visit to this beautiful country work with advancing quality of meat rabbit production to improve nutrition in Guatemala.  Partners of the Americas (a USAID program generously funded by the American people) was my sponsor, and Institution of Nutrition for Central America and Panama (INCAP) and Seeds for the Future (SftF) were my gracious in-country hosts. It appears the staff of INCAP and Seeds for the Future have done an outstanding job of educating and motivating participating farmers to do the best possible with available resources, while tracking qualitative data that is already providing impressive reporting.  I flew into Guatemala City on Sunday, had an introductory meeting with INCAP the next day, and then was whisked off to Chocola’ to work with...

by F2F volunteer Arthur Bassett Working with coffee has taken me to visit and learn about cultures throughout the world. Recently with Partners of the Americas Farmer-to-Farmer program, I went to learn about coffee in northern Haiti and the experiences of the coffee farmers there. For the last 10 years I have been working with Café Justo, a cooperative based in Mexico that sells its coffee in the United States. Using my knowledge about Mexican coffees, I was selected to serve in Peace Corps Vanuatu in their coffee development program. My life is a journey to learn about coffee farming. Haiti coffee has been grown for many years but due to political crisis and other factors the production has been declining. In 2013-14 the production was 10,000 bags, Mexico and Central America offer 1/5 of world production at 1.1 million bags (USDA, Coffee World Markets and Trade, 2014). Gonzalez, A. (2015, March 25). Seattle Times. Retrieved from http://old.seattletimes.com/flatpages/nat...