Food Security Malawi Project #56935

Cultivating Rural Resilience: AFARI Fellows

by American Friends of Asian Rural Institute

Project Report | Aug 10, 2023
AFARI Fellowship Report

By Sherry DeLeon | Project Leader

Thanks to supporter like you, AFARI has appointed four new fellows for the 2023-2024 years. We are excited to introduce you to our newest fellows and share with you about their projects and impact.

Our first fellow's project is based in Cambodia and is called the Women’s Livelihood Project. For this project, the fellow will work with a group of women farmers to help organize a Savings group to help create income-generating activities. This is a community-led group that receives specialized training on topics such as teamwork, financial management, home gardening, and chicken raising. Our fellow hopes to increase the number of women participating in the Savings group and to improve their livelihoods through training and income-generating activities.

Our second fellow is based in North Sumatra, Indonesia and focuses on promoting youth engagement in sustainable agriculture. She will work with youth aged 16-25 to increase their knowledge and understanding of sustainable agriculture concepts and opportunities. She will be launching a youth campaign and engaging high schools and churches in four villages. She will also provide a two-day training session for young people on sustainable agriculture practices. Through this project, our fellow hopes to increase youth knowledge and participation in sustainable agriculture activities.

Our third fellow's project is based in Sierra Leone. It focuses on poultry farming and provides poultry management training for farmers who are amputees. The “Farming on Crutches” project will create income-generating opportunities through the increased production of meat and eggs and the production of Bokashi Fertilizer. Over the next 12 months, this project will train 60 farmers on sustainable agriculture, establish poultry farming with a 150-bird demonstration farm and amplify impact by learning from and sharing success stories from their program. This fellow’s goal is for Farming on Crutches to become the leading organic fertilizer agent for smallholder farmers in Sierra Leone by the end of 2024.

Our fourth felllow's project is based in Liberia and focuses on training rural community members to implement sustainable agricultural practices. Through this project, our fellow will build a mini-solar cassava processing plant and provide training in cassava and yam production as well as marketing skills that will lead to household economic sustainability. Activities include classroom and practical training in the fields on agricultural and community development practices. The goal is to increase cassava production by 40% over the next 12 months leading to increased household income for participating farmers.

These four fellows will be working in their communities to train and share tools to help improve livelihoods and promote sustainable argriculture. We look forward to updating you on their progress over the next 12 months and appreciate your investment in rural leaders and their communities.

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Apr 18, 2023
Fellowship Report

By Sherry DeLeon | Executive Director

Dec 21, 2022
Creating Lasting Community Transformation

By Sherry DeLeon | Project Leader

The goal of the Tarr Fellowship Program is to build the capacity of rural leaders by cultivating supportive relationships with NGO peers and community members and developing leadership skills to build their capability as grassroots leaders and community builders.

Twenty-six Fellows applied from 15 countries including Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cameroon, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Myanmar, Nepal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Togo, and Zambia. The fellowship began on July 1, 2022. Alemla Samuel from Nagaland, India and Cecilia Mpinga from Malawi were selected as this year’s Tarr Fellows.

Alemla’s project is a Demonstration Center for Training and Learning. She focuses on training community members, with an emphasis on youth and women, about agro-based livelihoods. She provides training to farmers and community members—teaching them how to make Bokashi, how to grow kitchen gardens for healthy food, and how to practice sustainable farming techniques. She is also teaching about reducing food waste through proper fruit preservation and promoting home-based confectionery products. Attached to this overview is an interim report on Alemla’s progress. In October, she trained 60 college students in sustainable agricultural practices from a local university. The university was so impressed with this training that they entered into an MOU with her organization to provide future training to their students.

Cecilia’s project is called the Hygiene Village Project in Limbe, Malawi. The goal is to improve the nutrition and livelihood of rural women through goal and crop production.

These fellows have trained more than 200 women and 60 students on organic farming, composting, and food processing. Fellows work with their community to establish kitchen gardens. They provide training on nutrition and healthy eating. Fellows apply their learning from the Asian Rural Institute locally to help communities be more self-sufficient and resilient.

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