Recognizing the challenges posed by post-earthquake livelihoods recovery and in achieving long term economic development in Nias, ACTED’s livelihoods project targets 26 communities in Nias. Trainings in best practice techniques relating to agriculture and fisheries is combined with inputs supply and the encouragement of self-help group development. To ensure that the project reaches as many local people as possible, community volunteers are trained to teach the techniques to their community members in what is called Farmer Field Schools (FFS). These volunteers are vital to the success of the program and will be key to maintaining the gains made in the communities after the project’s completion. ACTED in Indonesia’s Deputy Agro Program Manager, Sevi Waruwu, sat down with Arius, from Fadoro Hilimbowo village, a community volunteer who has recently completed training in January 2009. 

What do you like about volunteering with ACTED?

I am really interested in ACTED’s program, especially the intervention in agricultural sector. I still remember the program socialisation meeting where an ACTED staff member explained to my village that ACTED was to conduct trainings of trainers to selected volunteers on cultivating, harvesting and post-harvest handling of commodities such as cocoa, rubber, and vegetables. Then the volunteers would in turn train farmers in their own villages. I realized that most people in my village are farmers who own land with many cocoa and rubber trees but do not properly maintain the trees. The small harvest generated keeps farmers below the poverty line. In the beginning, I thought ACTED was just the same as other NGOs: I thought they would come to the field, do a distribution and leave this island. But in the end, I realized ACTED is different and special. I believe that the program’s activities will help me increase my knowledge and skills. And that is true. From my experience, it is a pleasure to interact with many people, to work with communities and nice to meet volunteers from other villages.

Read more…

Category: News June 11th, 2009

During the winter months, most vulnerable families in northern Afghanistan suffer from an acute lack of food and fuel. In Baghlan and Faryab provinces, ACTED provided support to 4,233 beneficiaries through Cash for Work (CFW) activities and direct aid to the most vulnerable households with no men to directly participate in the works. The project took 5 months and was financed by the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid Department.

The rural areas of Baghlan and Faryab, where the project took place, have so far received relatively little attention from the development community and the government. Especially in the project locations selected in Faryab, the poor and vulnerable have been forced to adapt drastic coping mechanisms to survive the winter. Examples are not hard to come by. In one of the targeted villages, Qarah Mullah Qurban, children were often seen sweeping dung and scraps of straw from the street to use as a fuel for cooking and heating, since the price of wood puts it out of reach of most Afghan families. Another family from Takhti Qeshlaq came to use animal fodder to bake bread, as it is cheaper then flour. Read more…

Category: News June 11th, 2009

The village of Modelle in Haiti is an example of the people’s commitment in the activities of rehabilitation of the Artibonite river’s embankments and dykes.

The Artibonite Department in Haiti is highly vulnerable to flooding in the cyclonic season. In order to prevent the risk of flooding and to support the recovery of the local economy, ACTED is implementing, with the support of the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid Department, the rehabilitation and cleaning of irrigation canals, embankments and dykes. The communities are an integrated part of these activities through the Cash for Work - CFW and Food for Work - FFW schemes.

Modelle village, located on the river Artibonite, is affected yearly by massive flooding (20 cm in 2008) which isolate the village, destroying crops, weakening mud houses and favoring the development of water-borne diseases. Those regular catastrophes burden the development perspectives for the inhabitants of Modelle. In March 2009, ACTED has started the rehabilitation of one kilometer of the river embankments alongside the village, in the framework of the project “Emergency intervention to improve the living conditions of the communities affected by flooding in the Lower Artibonite”. Read more…

Category: News June 8th, 2009

Read more…

Category: News, Newsletters June 7th, 2009

Situated at the extreme South-East of the Central African Republic, in an isolated region between the Sudanese and Congolese borders, the Haut-Mbomou prefecture is witnessing a new enthusiasm for ACTED’s new strategy focusing on local development. While most of the humanitarian activities are taking place in the North and the West, the opening of this new area of intervention will allow ACTED to exert its influence on the western part of the territory, and to become an innovative actor in terms of sustainable actions on the field, by setting up a program supporting regional economic recovery.

It took almost 2 days by bike for Ibrahima to travel the 45 kilometres separating him from “the pretty Zémio”. Nicknamed as such in the thirties, the Haut Mbomou sub-prefecture attracted the breeder not so much because of its palm trees or its river where some hippopotamus paddle, but because he wanted to meet with ACTED’s team, located on the main street since the beginning of March 2009. Everything happened very fast: in two days, the office was opened; one month later, the team recruitment was finalized by Aurélie, the bubbly yet determined project manager. The needs are tremendous and pressing, the expectations as well. The core of the program aims at supporting local development actors, which is key to a better understanding of regional economic potentials and to the elaboration of a prefectural Development Plan. Read more…

Category: News June 5th, 2009