progress at home, and project report for September

things are beautiful over here. sat. i took an amazing
hike with a guy who lives around the corner from me- like a fairy
tale out here with hills and clouds and little wooden bridges and cows
and sheep, massai, children strolling around. one of my more beautiful
hikes. i got my family to give me their teenage son's room- he's away at
school- so i have my own space. it makes a huge difference- i really
need a place to recharge or consolidate or something- sort through my
ideas. we stopped in at a family my neighbor friend here used to stay
with- way up in the hills. they still have a little hut where someone
could stay and he doesn't want it, so i am considering it- it is like a
different world up there in the hills- i really was loving it up there-
only like a 20 minute walk down to a main road i live along, but a
different world. work is going well - my 'boss' and i appreciate
the way eachother thinks and we're making a lot of changes with the
agriculture program.NAME: Daphne Jochnick

Country: Tanzania

Reporting Period: month of September, '06

I. Project Update and Accomplishments:

I am working on an over-all assessment of and strategic planning for the
BIA program, traveling between Tengeru and the Arusha office. I helped
to organize a successful BIA trainers meeting at the end of Sept. in
which we discussed the BIA mission and ways in which we want to change
and move forward with the program. We will be ironing out the mission
over the next several weeks and have a strategic planning meeting
scheduled for the end of November. To prepare for both the meeting we
held in September and the November strategic planning meeting I have
been meeting one on one with each of the BIA trainers as well as William
and several other people relevant to the BIA program to elicit their
ideas on how we can best move forward with the program. I also met with
one of the high performing farmers to get his input. The consistent
message so far is the need for GSC to assist with marketing. For the
September trainers meeting we invited representatives from Fido Mali, a
nonprofit which works on marketing initiatives with Farmers. William
and the trainers were impressed with the presentation, as were Deborah
and I. I will be working with William on other marketing groups we may
want to partner with. Deborah and I will be looking into
micro-financing groups that we may want to partner with. In preparation
for the November Strategic Planning meeting Sommie and I will be meeting
with high performing/key player farmers one on one or two at a time, to
elicit their ideas on how the program can move forward. Specifically
where they would like to see themselves over the next 5 yrs. and how GSC
can help them reach their goals. I will be looking into organic
certification groups, marketing groups and micro-financing groups who
may be of use to our farmers. In the November Strategic Planning
meeting we
will be going through all of this information.

I have been helping to assess the state of affairs in Tengeru and have
been meeting with Deborah to discuss how we can best use the talents of
the people under our employment in the BIA program; William, Mary, the
trainers, and myself. We have been clarifying and tweaking the roles
that people play- streamlining William's role, and expanding Mary's and
mine, to take on some of the managerial duties that William has been
doing. William will be training Mary and I in record keeping. Initially
I will assist Mary in record keeping for the Tengeru Demo Plot; all the
money coming in, going out, monthly reports on expenses and income. As
Mary gets comfortable with the record keeping I will phase myself out of
this position and she will take over all together. I have been out at
the plot 4 days a week. Placid and I have been overseeing what happens
on the plot. Now that placid is out, Sommie and i will be an occasional
presence. The goal is that Mary and Josephu who work the plot will be
trained enough that they can essentially run the plot with minimal
oversight. this means they will handle all phases of BIA on the plot
including companion planting, crop rotation pesticide application and
record keeping. As I say, Sommie and I will continue to be an
occasional presence, as is of course William, on the plot.

II. Challenges/Problems:

Our challenge is to keep the relationship between GSC and the farmers
dynamic so that we assist them on their initiatives and not take the
role of doling out services to passive recipients. Deborah and I are
keeping this idea of a dynamic relationship foremost as we iron out our
mission statement and next steps. She and I are discussing how our
current role has been primarily a training service. Our future role may
include facilitation. We facilitate those who we have trained to
partner with organizations who can aid them to take their next steps,
ie. marketing organizations, micro-finance organizations. organizations
who can assist them in realizing their goals now that they have the BIA
training.

We are also looking at the problem of groups whose member range from
very committed practitioners of BIA to farmers who continue with
conventional practices and aren't putting trainings thus far into
action. We are talking about forming new groups of farmers who have
shown initiative in practicing BIA. These can be the groups on whom we
focus our attention, and who can become leaders and inspire others to
come on board.

These are just the ideas we are talking about at this point as we
brainstorm our future direction. I will continue to get input on these
and other ideas from the farmers themselves and trainers as we prepare
for our November meeting.