Happy International Women's Day!

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Our organization is so thrilled to work with such incredible women hosts, staff, program participants, organization leaders, and business owners. Below are highlights of some of the incredible women we work with!

Altair Rodriquez in the Dominican Republic

Altair Rodriguez is the owner of a 66 hectare demonstration farm called Finca Tierra Negra in the Dominican Republic. She has invited specialists from the Farmer to Farmer program to evaluate the land and help her create a strong agroforestry landscape with a variety of climate-smart crops! Through her farm, she is hoping to create a platform for local farmers to observe and learn about sustainable farming practices and systems.

Vision Maya in Guatemala

Vision Maya is an association located in Sololá, Guatemala comprised of almost 200 individuals dedicated to the production and marketing of fresh oyster mushrooms. Because more than half of the association is made up of women, Maya Vision is dedicated to the economic development of female farmers. Recently, an F2F volunteer traveled to Vision Maya and conducted hands-on workshops and trainings with mushroom producers in the use of compost in their gardens. Some of the participants, as well as our wonderful field officer, Andrea Fion, are pictured below.

Sarah Brinkley in Haiti

Sarah Brinkley trained farmers and extension agents in climate-smart agriculture practices to sustainably increase production, including how to rejuvenate coffee plots with rust-resistant varieties, properly manage shade levels, and implement integrated pest management schemes. Now, smallholder coffee farmers have a better understanding of how to achieve higher levels of production through best management practices.




Pine Needle Basket Women’s Cooperative in San Jose de Cusmapa, Nicaragua
Eight women basket weavers recently took part in a product pricing and financial literacy workshops in Nicaragua in order to be equipped with tools to be competitive in local and national markets. One of the main goals of the project is to focus on women and youth in agricultural projects so that they can operate their own cooperatives when equipped with proper business and administration skills and technologies.



Melanie Forstrom and Junior Achievement in Nicaragua

Junior Achievement Nicaragua has hosted many volunteers to equip their youth and women participants with various entrepreneurial and leadership skills. One of the most successful recent assignments was when 4-H Specialist, Melanie Forstrom was sent to work with the women of the organization to integrate her renowned experiential learning method in a variety of activities and games. This style of teaching entails engaging in an activity and then asking reflective questions to speak about the skills that were applied during the activity. The programs were very well-received by the participants!

                                               

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