Celebrate National Volunteer Week!
Learn How ACDI/VOCA Volunteers Use Skills, Expertise to Help Others Worldwide
It’s National Volunteer Week (April 19 to April 23). To celebrate, we recognized an ACDI/VOCA volunteer each day of the week to highlight the many ways volunteers strengthen our international development work. Our international volunteers are proven professionals who volunteer their time to travel overseas and share their expertise and skills with the many women and men who are building local businesses, rural economies and regional trade in developing countries worldwide.
DAY 1: Volunteer Judith Freeman Shares Strategic, Sustainable Flower Practices in Bolivia
DAY 2: Volunteers Jerry Nolte & Dr. Roger Ellis Build Collective Action, Livestock Health
DAY 3: Two Mars Volunteers Help ‘Volta Red’ Rice in Ghana Reach Global Grocers
DAY 4: Volunteers Damon Szymanski & Dr. Alecsandro Dos Santos Mix Proven & New
DAY 5: ACDI/VOCA Volunteers Specialize in Youth Development Work & Financial Services Too
Three Volunteers Help Expand our Reach to Youth: Tim Kock, Nancy Walker, Mike Marzolla
Volunteer Tim Kock Helps Young Farmers, Agricultural Entrepreneurs Worldwide
Tim Kock knows how to make agribusiness education, training and development work for youth and agricultural producers across many global settings. As an ACDI/VOCA volunteer in Georgia, he helped train young farmers in business management practices and established international 4-H and Future Farmers of Georgia agricultural programs. He also partnered with a local university to design a youth component to its educational framework for extension education.
As a volunteer in Krygyzstan, Kock designed infrastructure for a community youth center organization. And most recently in Kenya, he worked with faculty at Moi University to design the curriculum for agricultural youth development.
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ACDI/VOCA volunteers work with youth in many countries to support the next generation of farmers and entrepreneurs. Photographer: ACDI/VOCA |
Volunteer Nancy Walker Builds Young Leaders in Kazakhstan & Uganda
Nancy Walker has worked as an ACDI/VOCA volunteer in Kazakhstan and Uganda since 2000. Her specialty is to create and strengthen youth development programs, especially those that offer youth leadership training.
In Uganda, Walker coordinated the long-term planning and management of an Uganda integrated rural development program, which included a youth sector. She helped assess youth training needs in the communities and then designed and delivered an intensive training event for the outreach workers who conduct the trainings for youth and women in rural Uganda.
In Kazakhstan, Walker designed and conducted trainings for youth and youth leaders toward helping them plan and implement a youth program. As a first step, she worked with the young people to help them determine their roles in the endeavor and the goals for their youth centers.
Volunteer Mike Marzolla Lends His Youth Expertise to Programs in Bolivia & Serbia
As an ACDI/VOCA volunteer, Mike Marzolla helps build the leadership skills and capacity of youth as well as staff running youth programs in Bolivia and Serbia.
In Bolivia, Marzolla led the review of Save the Children’s youth development programs in Oruro. He helped design participatory staff training and program planning modules for the Spanish-speaking teams on such topics as curriculum development, planning and design, the life-skills model, assets development and environmental education. He also coached the teams on how to use the materials.
In Serbia, as part of our community development project, Marzolla helped train a variety of groups in leadership skills, including selected youth (ages 16 to 18), representatives of local nongovernmental organizations, and young local government leaders. He also worked with selected youth involved in the school’s Junior Achievement project, and helped the program leaders develop agendas for future student leadership trainings.
Volunteer Monnie Biety Offers Financial Solutions to Co-op’s Loan Problems
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Volunteer Monnie Biety works with local cooperative members in Paraguay to strengthen financial services. Photographer: ACDI/VOCA |
ACDI/VOCA volunteer Monnie Biety traveled to Paraguay last summer as part of our Community Development Program to provide members of a local cooperative with cost accounting and financial management training. But when she arrived, she learned from the co-op management that what they really needed was advice on how to solve some serious financial woes.
Delinquencies of more than 60 days had risen to over 15.4 percent of the cooperative’s loan portfolio. Moreover, the cooperative was refinancing delinquent loans and making new loans regardless of members’ payment or income histories.
Immediately, Biety expanded the scope of her assignment to include a financial analysis of the co-op and member training on how to collect delinquent loans. In just under two weeks, Biety conducted three different trainings on delinquent management, financial analysis, and basic cost accounting and financial management with members and the board.
She also worked with the co-op management on how to increase institutional capital by retaining a larger portion of its annual net income. And she worked with the management to develop a list of policies, processes and strategic decisions to be implemented to help mitigate the delinquent loan problem over the longer-term.
DAY 4: Volunteers Damon Szymanski & Dr. Alecsandro Dos Santos Mix Proven & New
Volunteer Damon Szymanski Uses Vast Dairy Experience to Better Lives in Egypt
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Volunteer Damon Szymanski works with dairy farmers in Egypt. Photographer: ACDI/VOCA |
Damon Szymanski is perhaps ACDI/VOCA’s most experienced volunteer, having completed 83 assignments in 17 different countries since 1990. His volunteer work has touched hundreds, if not thousands, of people’s lives in developing countries. And his most recent training trip to Egypt was no exception.
Last fall through our USAID-funded Farmer-to-Farmer project, Szymanski worked with 75 dairy farmers and extension agents in Egypt to improve practices in calf raising, feeding, reproduction, herd management, housing, proper milking procedure and milk hygiene.
These dairy farmers, whose operations are small in size and not always profitable, face many obstacles as they balance time and resources toward earning a living, putting food on the table and operating their businesses. Szymanski’s training and technical assistance provided a fresh window of opportunity for the farmers, who with hard work and fortitude, can use the new information and skills to operate their dairies more efficiently – and profitably.
Such was the case of farmer Saied Eid El- Feki, who because of the trainings, ran a more efficient dairy last year, made more money and used those proceeds to buy more animals and expand his business.
Perhaps most important, El- Feki’s wife, Neamat, now is assured that the family has an abundant supply of safe, clean, nutritious milk to drink.
First-time Volunteer Dr. Alecsandro Dos Santos Gets Result for Lebanon Dairy Farmers
First-time ACDI/VOCA volunteer Dr. Alecsandro Dos Santos used his years of experience in animal nutrition and dairy production to get dairy farmers in Lebanon significant results: greater milk production at a significantly lower cost.
A veterinarian by training, Dr. Dos Santos spent two weeks in North Lebanon as part of our USAID-funded Farmer-to-Farmer program working with farmers of a local cooperative to assess their livestock’s nutrition and health and calculate optimal feed rations for the dairy cattle.
He worked with the Livestock Husbandry Forage Production & Agro Processing Co-op in Akkar province to introduce a new software program that helps the farmers balance and formulate feed rations.
Within two weeks, the co-op’s changes in feed led to an increase in milk production from 19 kg per cow to 26 kg. Meanwhile, other practices that Dr. Dos Santos recommended helped cut daily production costs by $2 per cow (from $9 to $7).
DAY 3: Two Mars Volunteers Help ‘Volta Red’ Rice in Ghana Reach Global Grocers
Volunteer Annette Aitkenhead Brands Specialty Rice in Ghana
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Mars volunteer Annette Aitkenhead helps create a global brand for Ghana red rice. Photographer: ACDI/VOCA |
Annette Aitkenhead, marketing and brand manager of the Mars Inc. snack division, was among the first volunteers to travel overseas in 2008 to see for herself where Mars products originate while also helping the local farmers and businesses who support Mars' global operations.
Aitkenhead traveled to Ghana to help market an indigenous red rice grown only in Ghana’s Volta region. The rice is higher in nutrition than brown rice and largely cultivated and traded by women farmers. (Mars owns the Uncle Ben’s rice products.)
Aitkenhead worked with FINATRADE Group, a trade and marketing company based in Ghana, to develop a world-class branding and marketing strategy for the red rice. Though two weeks was little time to develop a full marketing strategy, she and the FINATRADE team managed to complete a preliminary package design and develop a 'back story' for the rice, branded Volta Red, which emphasizes its historical origins and the dominant role of women in its cultivation and trade.
Upon returning to the United States, Aitkenhead worked with Cornell University to document the rice’s nutritional benefits – especially high levels of calcium and iron – and assist with production trials. These are the first crucial steps toward bringing Ghana’s Volta Red rice to supermarkets worldwide.
Editorial note: Aitkenhead was so inspired by her Ghana experience that she volunteered again this past fall through our USAID-funded Farmer-to-Farmer program in Ghana.
Volunteer Pirjo Kauhanen Links Ghana to European Markets
Pirjo Kauhanen, who works with the European division of the Uncle Ben’s product line, traveled to Ghana soon after Aitkenhead left to continue the volunteer work with FINATRADE.
Kauhanen worked with the Ghanaian trade group to develop a Volta Red marketing and branding strategy tailored for a European market. She also helped identify a European importer for the rice.
Among Kauhanen’s recommendations was that FINATRADE should export the red rice in big batches of loose rice and help local farmers focus on Fair Trade certification. She also suggested ways that the local rice producers could improve product quality and food safety, both crucial to success with European buyers.
Many of our current programs in Ghana work with rice and others farmers on these types of production, certification and marketing issues.
Editorial note: Mars worked with ACDI/VOCA and Winrock International in 2008 to pilot its corporate volunteer program, the Mars Ambassador Program, in a few select countries. Given the program’s initial and subsequent success, we are working with Mars this year to expand its volunteer program worldwide.
DAY 2: Volunteers Jerry Nolte and Dr. Roger Ellis
Volunteer Jerry Nolte Brings People Together
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Volunteer Jerry Nolte works with local groups in Paraguay. Photographer: ACDI/VOCA |
ACDI/VOCA volunteer Jerry Nolte is an expert at bringing people together to help build cooperatives and associations regardless of culture and context.
In the past decade, Nolte has completed 20 volunteer assignments toward building and strengthening cooperatives and associations in ACDI/VOCA-project countries ranging from Jamaica, Paraguay and Russia to Vietnam and many countries throughout East and West Africa.
Building the capacity of organized groups is a cornerstone of ACDI/VOCA’s economic development work because such groups allow small business owners, farmers and others to pool resources and compete in the marketplace. That said, the task can be difficult because risks often are high and trust low, especially in rural and resource-poor areas.
Nolte is successful because he helps farmers, producers and other women and men understand the value of working together for a mutual benefit. He personally guides members through the process of developing an organization that will accomplish their goals, and helps strengthen an existing group’s network and structure.
His work last year in Jamaica with the Jamaican Cocoa Farmers Association helped pave the way for success in our current USAID-funded Farmer-to-Farmer award, the Jamaica Marketing and Agriculture for Jamaican Improved Competitiveness (MAJIC) project.
Volunteer Dr. Roger Ellis Offers Veterinary Care Overseas
Dr. Roger Ellis not only brings expert veterinary care to communities in developing countries, he also is a champion for volunteer efforts like the USAID Farmer-to-Farmer program.
As an ACDI/VOCA volunteer, Dr. Ellis has travelled to Honduras, Lebanon, Liberia and Russia to conduct disease assessments and work with communities and farmers to teach them about animal health issues. Better livestock care means farmers have greater livestock numbers, and this in turn boosts incomes, which ultimately leads to more and better food for families.
Dr. Ellis also spends countless hours in Washington, D.C., working on the Hill as a private citizen to support of the USAID Farmer-to-Farmer program and other volunteer efforts, especially those linked to veterinary services. Last year, with Dr. Thomas Graham from the University of California, Davis, Dr. Ellis helped establish Veterinarians Without Borders USA, a network of volunteer veterinarians who work to improve the lives of animals and people in developing countries.
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Several ACDI/VOCA volunteers like Dr. Ellis are veterinarians who help improve livestock health and care in developing countries. Photographer: ACDI/VOCA |
Under our current Farmer-to-Farmer program in Liberia, we sent Dr. Ellis on a three-week volunteer assignment in April 2010 to assess livestock diseases. Already, he has vaccinated and de-wormed over 1,000 animals, which has benefitted 400 families across six communities in Liberia.
Dr. Ellis also trained the two livestock officers at the Ministry of Agriculture in disease detection and treatment. And he has compiled a pamphlet of the most common animal diseases in Liberia, their symptoms, prevention and treatment to be used by the Ministry of Agriculture Livestock Program.
As part of ACDI/VOCA’s broader efforts to improve livestock health and care in Liberia, we have linked Veterinarians Without Borders to the Ministry of Agriculture and the local U.N Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) agency. With donated support from the U.S. Navy and the FAO, Veterinarians Without Borders will work this July to help the Ministry of Agriculture set up a lab and train personnel to identify and treat animal diseases in Liberia.
DAY 1: Volunteer Judith Freeman Shares Strategic, Sustainable Flower Practices in Bolivia
First-time volunteer Judith Freeman recently traveled to Bolivia to show local flower producers how to build their industry in a more strategic and sustainable way. After just three-weeks of workshops and discussions, the local lily producers are confident that next year’s business will be better. For one, they no longer have to purchase seed bulbs from abroad. They now know how to propagate new bulbs from their own farms.
Freeman worked with Bolivian lily producers in the Yanacachi area of the Yungas region who are members of the Association of Flower Producers of the Yungas (Asociacion Integral de Floricultores de los Yungas). Most of the residents in Yanacachi work in the floriculture industry. The region traditionally has produced flowers for local and international markets. In recent years, however, the flower industry has stagnated because of low yields due to disease and pests, and low prices due to local varieties not meeting global demand.
As a first step, Freeman, who is president and CEO of Columbia-Platte Lilies, Inc./The Lilly Garden based in Vancouver, Wash., conducted a strategic analysis of lily production in the Yanacachi area to determine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of local businesses.
As a volunteer, Freeman spent three weeks working with local producers to improve lily propagation techniques and identify the lily species that are least susceptible to local pathogens and will grow best in the hot and humid Yungas climate. She also worked with local producers to determine the size and quality of lily bulbs best suited for the local fresh cut flower market. Freeman shared this information via workshops in six communities where she also demonstrated techniques like proper lily scaling and lily hybridization.
The Bolivian lily producers now know how to scale and propagate their lily bulbs, which will save them money and help their business be more sustainable over the long term.
ACDI/VOCA's international volunteer program has 40 years of experience sending professionals overseas as volunteer consultants to provide technical assistance with field projects in agribusiness, enterprise development, community development, food security and financial service. Learn more about our Volunteer Program.
