Food Security Sample Projects

Mali

Agriculture Volunteer Christin Spradley, working with a local women's association, started a community garden to address issues of nutrition and income in her village. Using her local language and management skills, she was able to mobilize local resources and secure Peace Corps Partnership funding for the project. Christin trained the local women in appropriate gardening techniques and showed them how to use the vegetables in their daily diet. In addition, Christin worked closely with the women's association in her village and three surrounding villages to begin shea nut production to increase income.

Armenia

Environmental Volunteer Rud Hubbard was assigned to a nongovernmental organization in his village. With partial funding from a Small Project Assistance grant, Rud and his community started the Sustainable Agriculture University Development Project. With the help from sponsors, a training facility was constructed for sustainable/organic farming training. The facility features a solar powered greenhouse for experimentation and demonstration, a compost area, and a large area available for crops. The organization works with 17 farmers' associations and 10 partner organizations to train local agricultural advisors from each association. At the end of the project, these advisors will be fully prepared to implement sustainable/organic farming trainings and experimentation in their own communities.

Tonga

Amanda Strickler, a business development Volunteer, works at the Vava'u Youth Congress (VYC) in the Kingdom of Tonga. The nonprofit organization's goal is to give the youth of Tonga the skills they need to succeed. One of their most innovative projects is the VYC Greenhouse project funded by the New Zealand High Commission. The VYC Greenhouse functions in a number of capacities: growing vanilla, organic vegetables, and kava, educating local youth in technical farming skills and in micro-business aptitude. Amanda has worked with her counterparts to grow, harvest, and market organic vegetables and kava. They have begun to generate the needed income to maintain greenhouse operations and are gaining the experience needed for greenhouse training curriculum. By means of networking with youth chapter presidents and a women's development group at the Ministry of Agriculture, the pilot training project at the VYC will be an equal opportunity endeavor for those in need of agro-business training.

Last updated Nov 03 2008