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Kyrgyzstan President Visits ACDI/VOCA Project  On August 27 President Askar Akayev, accompanied by Osh Governor Naken
Kasiev, cut the ribbon on a new sports center in Mirza-aki. Under ACDI/VOCA's
Community Action Investment Program, the facility and grounds
had been rehabilitated and new equipment provided. CAIP's community
development efforts in ethnically diverse Central Asia puts youth front
and center. In the absence of alternative ways to occupy their time, and
frustrated by the lack of economic opportunity, young people are tempted
by religious fanaticism, drugs and prostitution. In the community
surveys that underlie all CAIP activities, community members identified
youth programs as a priority, saying that opportunities for education,
recreation and self-expression are essential. The Mirza-Aki center
involved three communities, local governments and the Osh Oblast Sports
Committee. This and other centers across Kyrgyzstan that were once
dilapidated and unused are now bustling with activity, offering courses
in chess, music and dance, providing recreation to over 1,400 young
people and giving them a chance to develop in an atmosphere of pluralism
and nonviolence. CAIP, funded by USAID, has established partnerships
with 30 communities in Kyrgyzstan and, as of July, CAIP has contributed
$962,052 towards community-driven projects that benefit over 210,000
people.A Volunteer Assignment—the Gift that Keeps on Giving Antoinette Iadarola, president of Pennsylvania's Cabrini College, carried out training in strategic planning and negotiation as an ACDI/VOCA volunteer in Belarus in 2001. She has maintained friendships there and recently made it possible for a stranded student from that country to study at Cabrini. She writes her sister-in-law, ACDI/VOCA VP Sally Iadarola: "I took a Belarus student in this semester. Lucheschenko [Belarusian president] closed down the European Humanities University in Minsk and about 30 students were stranded here in the U.S. The Soros Foundation will help fund some of the cost. She arrives on Thursday. We were supposed to get two but one is very ill. They really have been traumatized by the whole thing and cannot believe Americans are helping in this way." (back to top) Dennis De Santis meets with Ukraine's Vice Prime-Minister ACDI/VOCA Senior VP Dennis De Santis met on Sept. 27 with Deputy Prime-Minister Ivan Kyrylenko who praised ACDI/VOCA's work towards a grain warehouse receipts system and pledged his government's continued cooperation. He said that such a system will protect individual farmers and benefit the entire sector with a sound market structure. He said he especially appreciated the well-meaning and talented ACDI/VOCA specialists from the U.S. who serve under the project. Mr. De Santis noted the valuable assistance that the project has received from the government which, he stressed, was critical to its success. (back to top) CredAgro Hits $10 Million Mark  ACDI/VOCA's non-bank rural credit institution in Azerbaijan was recently
featured in the Baku Sun. The article pointed out that CredAgro had
disbursed $10 million to farmers and entrepreneurs
in livestock, crops, trade, services, processing and equipment. CredAgro,
which operates in nine districts of Azerbaijan, is well on its way to
self-sustainability. The article profiled dairy farmer Vali Musa Oglu
Suleymanov, who with the help of two CredAgro loans, has expanded his
herd, purchased equipment, added lab, irrigation, feed and
transportation capability, and ventured into cheesemaking. In a society
where banks aren't oriented to small-scale agriculture and tend to impose
stifling restrictions, he appreciates CredAgro's entrepreneurial
orientation. He is quoted as saying, "CredAgro doesn't interfere in my
activity, doesn't set any requirements and obligations, and I can be
independent in my daily operations."
(back to top)ACDI/VOCA Well Represented at BIFAD The 140th meeting of the Board for International Food and Agricultural Development (BIFAD) was held October 13 in Des Moines, Iowa. ACDI/VOCA was represented by former president Mike Deegan who is on the BIFAD board, former staffer in Egypt Roger Engstrom, who next month will teach about cattle feed concentrates and supplements in Azerbaijan on his second Farmer-to-Farmer assignment, and three-time rural credit volunteer Jeff Kuntz. The two volunteers addressed the meeting on the value of international agricultural development. (back to top) |
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The
specialty coffee industry is embracing Fair Trade certification to
cope with declining quality, destabilization of the market and
growing concern over the sustainability of small-scale growers in
today's prolonged coffee crisis. How does it work? A consortium of
worldwide Fair Trade groups monitors growing practices and sales,
verifies compliance with Fair Trade criteria and certifies that
benefits reach farmers. The Fair Trade label then is authorized for
products that meet the standards, and those products are sold at
higher prices. Consumers in developed nations have shown a
willingness to support participating coffee farmers, whose costs of
production often outstrip market prices. In the past five years $45
million in premiums has been returned to coffee farmers. And
consumers get a good product to go with the good feelings. In a
recent coffeereview.com article, experts Kenneth Davids and Lindsay
Bolger wrote, "Fair Trade certified coffees are on an average very
good...and appear to be improving." Today, more than half a million
growers in 22 countries benefit from Fair Trade prices and
associated industry development efforts. This month, look for tens
of thousands of food retailers and restaurants to offer special
deals on Fair Trade certified coffee (including that produced by
ACDI/VOCA-assisted growers in Ethiopia, Rwanda and Colombia) as well
as other products such as tea, cocoa and bananas.
ACDI/VOCA Wins India Rural Competitiveness Task Order