COVID 19 and new ways of working
In this blog you’ll get an update on recent changes in strategies and the setting up Green Shoots Resources Organization during the COVID 19 Pandemic.
The last time Green Shoots made it site visits was the summer of 2019.
After completing a couple of TB workshops in Mandalay with our all-star team of doctors. Green Shoots operations manager headed to Cambodia to visit the Agri-Tech Centre for a six week visit. During this time the team hosted volunteers, visitors from the UK and organised events such as a Farm-to-Table party for our local partner staff. It was the first visit since the space was established and an important one to take stock of progress made in the last six months and essential planing for the months to come. Little did we know that the next visit would be perpetually postponed.
Fast-forward to March 2020 and what we had was the beginnings of a global lockdown, a pandemic that resulted in decreasing our perimeters to the four walls of our house or bedrooms. Many countries declared a state of emergency with schools and other venues encouraging gatherings of people (such as community centers) were also closed.
Our staff chose this time to focus more on growing and improving activities at the Agri-Tech Center however not being able to host students or have interactions with visitors can take its toll on staff morale. Other than the odd COVID-19 response specific grants, fundraising became more challenging and more and more smaller charities faced the brunt of losing capacity.
Green Shoots recently established Agri-Tech center found itself at a few lose ends. One of them being that, administratively, our structure and all its contents were in the name of our local Khmer partners- who were finding themselves under-staffed and unable to meet performance targets. Risk management, especially during this time, is imperative and we found ourselves researching ways to register a local entity in Cambodia. With the assistance of Cambodian law-firm arranged pro bono by Trust Law, we were able to complete this registration in March 20201 under the name Green Shoots Resources Organization.
The mission is to “Revitalize rural economies through regenerative agriculture skill transfer and sustainable business development”. The logo is inspired by our bamboo tunnel growing structure and it conveys a message of working together, staying strong by supporting each other and being a space for shelter.
Once travel is allowed, we plan to hire a local team and continue our work on skills training, starting new projects and fulfilling the needs of the community when it comes to food security and of course host volunteers! We have also been fundraising all summer to celebrate 10 years of Green Shoots. To support our work please visit this page
To find out more, get in touch!
