International Women's Day: Women in F2F!

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Happy International Women’s Day! Did you know that women make up 43% of global agricultural labor force? The Farmer-to-Farmer program at Partners of the Americas is proud to work with talented women throughout the Americas, from our US-based volunteer experts to the communities of women agricultural producers and leaders. 

Since 2019, we have hosted over 180 women volunteers in the six countries that we work in. Meet some of our women volunteers and women-led hosts below!

Maria Luisa's Foundation, Colombia

Jan Surface traveled to La Guajira, Colombia to support the Wayuu indigenous community at their school, Pulitchamana. She conducted trainings in water management, conservation, and basic desalination and filtering techniques, improving the quality of water to which children and the entire community have access.

Institute of the Environment, The Dominican Republic

Kristina Howlett worked with students at the Institute of the Environment as an ESL Specialist. She created didactic materials for English language learning focused on ecology and environment. During her assignment, she created a book based on the needs of the students at the Institute as well as a student curriculum with a variety of resources. 

Cabras para la Prosperidad (CABPRO), Guatemala

The CABPRO project works to increase food security of seven communities in Chiantla, Huehuetenango, Guatemala through goat production. The project works primarily with pregnant women and women with children 5 years and younger to build their capacity to raise goats, manage finances, and improve family diets and nutrition and the food security of the overall community. 

Dr Jacqueline Jacob supported the CABPRO project by helping the women of Chiantla with backyard poultry management. She helped pregnant women and women with children 5 years and younger to learn to raise chickens and incorporate a new source of protein in their diet.

Helping Hands, Guyana

Mary Leong worked with Helping Hands, an indigenous women-led group located in Region 9. Helping Hands works primarily in agro-processing, developing products like peanut butter, peanuts, and cashew nuts. Mary supported them as an Agro-Processing Management Specialist to support Helping Hands in their operations.

Inner Space Transformational Wellness, Jamaica

Navona Gallegos and Amara Szrom supported Inner Space Transformational Wellness as experts in permaculture. Navona and Amara helped the host with general permaculture design for the 13-acre site in Portland as well as organized and carried out a three-day train-the-trainer workshop for the local community. In addition, Navona and Amara helped with capacity building through training on-site staff in permaculture principles with particular emphasis on soil health and mushroom cultivation.

 

Farmer-to-Farmer at Partners of the Americas is grateful to all our women volunteers and the leadership and commitment of our women-led hosts!

If you are interested in volunteering with a Farmer-to-Farmer assignment, please visit farmer-to-farmer.org to learn more!

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