Women's Development Foundation – Promoting Sustainable Agriculture, Nutrition Training & Income Generation
- Adult education
- Gender equity
- Food security
- Income generation
- Rural development
- Women's issues
- Sustainable agriculture
Margaret
Chant
Iokea Village & Women's Development Foundation
00 94 772772409
Berth Brown Memorial Church, Iokea Village. Gulf Province. Papua New Guinea
, GU
Less than a year
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, GU
Women’s Development Foundation will promote sustainable agriculture, nutrition training & income generation. Our approach is unique because it combines old and new traditions in agriculture and food preparation. It will create skills and maintain them for future generation and protect food & seed capital and its value. It will educate the low lying coastal villages to utilize their resources effectively and learn to maintain sufficient food production to provide sustenance for Iokea & the many other villages like it. It will revive dormant traditional recipes & food preparations using local produce alongside the newer favorites of rice and canned foods. Women’s Development Foundation brings together old and new traditions for a grounded & healthy people. We will bring new agricultural technologies and training to rural farmers.
The main impact is rural & village empowerment. In this region, 99% predominantly live on subsistence farming and have little income. With better understanding of local resources, natural environments and modern agricultural technology, farmers will be able to go beyond subsistence farming and sell their products in the market. By transforming the way food is grown, produced and cooked we will unite the community, and compassionately adapt food cultures of the old with the new. This will also create new skills and maintain them for future generations. The project will also educate Papua New Guineans about the importance of protecting food & seed capital. We will work with women to revive dormant traditional recipes & food preparations using local produce alongside the newer favorites of rice and canned foods This will enhance & embrace food production in nutrition and for the betterment of all, recipes can be reproduced to market and to circulate to nearby villages and further improve other lives. The project will change attitudes to value their local resources and move away from the culture of dependency and poor agriculture and food habits.
IIokea Village is a small coastal Village on the Gulf of Papua. It is one of the least developed areas in Papua New Guinea, it is facing adverse weather conditions, rising sea level due to climate change and hasty economic & cultural transitions, it is abundant in rural land & marine resource however traditional ways are dying out fast as young people steer away from anything traditional and find worth in drugs, alcohol & fast food. There is increasing poverty, over 50% of population under 20 years of age most are unemployed and live in villages like Iokea, they turn to stealing and cause localized insecurity. Women’s Development Foundation aims to create an environment of worth through interactive skills of food production & valued culture from the old to the new in maintaining food capital. Lack of education and funding are the greatest obstacles denying villagers like Iokea to improved nutrition and better food production.
Working with the well established Berth Brown Memorial Group who run the village Men’s, Women’s, Youth & children’s Sunday school, although these are church run organizations most of the 6,000 villagers are in some way involved, the groups raise funds themselves and have little to no funding from elsewhere, much of the village needs are discussed and met through these groups, Women’s Development Foundations will be a community project that will be the undertaking of all theses community groups, with the necessary funding, planning and seed cultivation can begin. Crops will be designated and cleared by the groups with the “Pukari men” or Village Chiefs guidance. Chiefs and experienced farmers will provide instructions on what best to plant where and at what season. Certain cultural rituals and blessing are bestowed on plants for good harvest, which are traditional food cultures that will be practiced in the process & learnt by the young. Women & young girls will learn nutritional value to add to meals. Health workers & nutritionists will be invited to host workshops about various crops, their nutritional value & promoting good food cultures.
-Better Health & healthier people & communities
-Utilization and improved resource management
-Better infant & maternal health
-Food Security and through education the understanding of maintaining seed & food capital
-Promoting traditional food values and passing on the knowledge & skills for future generation
-Alleviating poverty
-Reducing culture of dependency and transition in a more compassionate way culturally & economically
-Value local produce & promote its value
-Income Generation
-Gender Equity
1001‐10,000
Less than $50
Yes
Approximately 150 words left (1200 characters).
Operating for less than a year
Yes
No
Yes
Good Partnerships provide resources of education, information and resource facilitation. It is important to value and work with a range of partnerships to share and improve ideas. Government departments have material and information that rural projects can have access to & utilize to benefit & support their projects. Opportunities to attend workshops and forums locally or internationally funded by or organized by local and national governments give opportunities to villagers who would otherwise never have the opportunity. Forging and maintaining a network of all related stakeholders such as NGOs, community leaders, Government, private business all can assist rural projects and empower communities and it is therefore highly important to the success of project such as ours.
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I have lived overseas for over 20 years and visit my Village & family from time to time, on every visit I have seen the decline in traditional culture, the tranquility of the village replaced by noisy drunk & drug induced youths, the staple of sago & fish replaced by canned tuna & rice, the young girls mistreated and domestic violence rife. Changes in climate destroy the coast & crops and has adverse effects on my village & other coastal villages. I got talking to the Village Women’s group who occasionally gathers at my mum’s or aunties for their usual weekly fellowship and realized that they have had ideas to develop the community however are unable to do so as the village has no electricity and they have no access to funds, together we discussed ideas and one of the ways proposed to alleviate the growing problems was to educate the community in sustainable food production, rekindle traditional food cultures and customs and educate and pass the skills on for the future. It was then that I set out to help them seek funding to improve the livelihoods of my fellow villagers and secure a better sustainable future for tomorrow’s children.
I am just an ordinary Papua New Guinean woman concerned for the safety and future of my beloved Iokea and fellow villagers. I have supported many charities and continue to do so today. I am currently a homemaker however have a vision to change attitudes and mindset from the village/ rural level communities where 85% of Papua New Guineas live on subsistence economies living from day to day. I believe with access to Internet and the outside I have a purpose to bring about development and change for the betterment of Iokea and also many other villages like it all over the world.
Email from Changemakers
Social norms, Economic or institutional constraints.
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Technology training, Creation and maintenance of market linkages for women's economic outputs.
Education on how to sell produce in markets
Rural.
It is led by a woman/women., It is led by a woman/women from a developing country., The core project team includes women., The core project team includes women from developing countries..