Farmers Helping Farmers will be recruiting 13 rural Prince Edward Island community leaders over the next month to travel to Kenya and Tanzania for three weeks in early 2002. Their mission will be to provide training and expertise to projects currently funded by the local organizations and to identify future potential projects. The exchange comes as a direct result of the positive feedback received from hosting East African partners on the Island last year.
Mary MacKay, a reporter with the Guardian, will also be accompanying the tour and providing daily coverage for its readers.
Farmers Helping Farmers has conducted development projects by providing training, educational materials and funding for resources, as well as exchange visits for agriculturally oriented Islanders, for over 20 years. The projects are designed to assist women farmers in East Africa to better feed their families and reduce their workload. Farmers Helping Farmers relies on its volunteer membership and financial donations from the community at large to complete its projects. The Canadian International Development Agency contributes two dollars for every dollar raised and is the major financial sponsor behind this upcoming trip.
Three projects are currently being funded in East Africa. The Wakulima Self-Help Dairy Group has doubled its income since the purchase of a bulk milk cooling tank with Farmers Helping Farmers funds. This has allowed the farmers to safely store their milk from the evening milking so that it can be sold the next day. The MKUKI HIV/AIDS Orphans Project receives funding to grow maize and beans for the 500 AIDS orphans MKUKI cares for. The newest project is the Muchui Women's Group Water Project. Farmers Helping Farmers will supply water tanks to catch the sporadic rainfall, saving the purchase and hauling of water from over 12 kilometres away. A case study will be done there on climate change. Each of these projects will be visited by the delegation and evaluated.
Members of the group will be available to speak with community organizations, church groups and service organizations upon their return. Farmers Helping Farmers will be engaging the financial support of local businesses to help with costs of the trip. Those interested in more information and/or who would like to participate can call Janice Whalen at (902) 651-2167 or e-mail j.whalen@pei.sympatico.ca.