Philippine Agricultural Economic Restoration

Our farmers have been busy the first 3 months of this year – with continued trainings and workshops, bell-pepper harvesting and new trade opportunities.

We are also happy to announce that IsraAID’s international Program Manager handed over the role to our local Program Coordinator and agronomist, who is now in charge of the continuation of the trainings and monitoring of the farmers’ work.

Since the beginning of 2017 the farmers are growing beautiful green, red and yellow bell pepper crops in the field. The bell-peppers are then delivered to significant traders in Tacloban and Cebu. The products are greatly appreciated by the traders for their high quality - comparing to other suppliers – and therefore the farmers are managing to sell them in a more profitable price.

Gender and Leadership Workshop

One of the workshops IsraAID facilitated the recent month was on gender, development and leadership. Leda, IsraAID’s national Programs Manager facilitated the workshops and shares the following:

“The workshop in gender and leadership was attended by participants mostly from farmer associations, women groups, and private institutions in Ormoc, Davao and Cagayan de Oro.

The training gave every participant an opportunity to assess the leader in her or himself, and the leadership of the association they belong. It provided a wider perspective of how to mainstream these key areas of development in their family and work related activities.

As a group facilitator, I was working with the farmers' women group. In my experience the training really highlights the importance of women taking an active and conscious role as leaders in their families and in their work. As to my learnings - as a group facilitator - you must somehow associate yourself as a leader in which you must possess a listening ear to every thoughts, ideas and opinions of every member in the group, maintain a good relationship with your members and put to mind that a good leader is a good follower.

As one of the program designers I truly believethat aside from what I gained from it, the farmers had a wonderful chance to receive knowledge on how to improve their leaderships skills and therefore the project functioning.”

IsraAID Philippines see a bright future for our farmers and their farmer association – with your help more people can join the CALCOA association and become successful farmers. We need your important and much needed support to to secure the sustainability of the program and allow the farmers to take the huge leap from recovery to true community resiliency. Thank you!