Agri-Tech Centre reflections..
Greetings from the Green Shoots Agri-Tech Site! Already referred to as “Mondol Kasikam” by the locals. This blog is long overdue as I have paused numerous times to encapsulate my emotions from when I first arrived on site and took in everyone’s hard work … to when I got stuck into the work myself until we had the big launch party on 20 December.
I might be biased, but I will honestly say no amount of insta-stories and photos prepare you for being on site! So let me backtrack.
Early December: As I cycled down the dirt road at 08:00 am the first thing that catches my eye was the massive bamboo arch marking the entrance. The arch guides your eye towards the agri-tech hall beautifully, it is inviting and I hope it excites all our potential students in the years to come!
Most of December we are busy finishing up work, the final team is also made up of volunteers from Buro Happold- the engineering firm that has helped us with all the drawings. It is Edward Dale-Harris’ last month on site and he is seeing his designs to fruition. We also have long-term volunteer, Amande, who came to us via Building Trust International (an organisation that you can still contact if you want to come work on site).
In the last week we had the most “beautiful” sounds (I do have a penchant for heavy metal) of welding, hammering, pumping and sawing of bamboo as others tried to sew grass mats or paint signs on rocks.
An early Christmas miracle but by 20 December we were ready for the launch party!
In true Khmer style! So that means: a Monk blessing, beautiful ladies in traditional dress for a ribbon cutting ceremony and lastly loud music and spicy food! Besides all the numerous NGO partners we also had the deputy of the provincial Governor, department of Agriculture/ Department of Education present. Even our local hotel owner! Who bought baskets of fruits for dessert. In total around 90 people attended the ceremony, we conducted two site tours (stay tuned for video footage) and planted lots of trees together.
This truly recognises the space as a community-led project, while Green Shoots has constructed this building there is fluidity in its function, use and purpose. Right now Green Shoots, with its partner CIDO, is focusing on the educational component.. however in the future it can also be an entrepreneurial hub, a demonstration site (for best rural development practice) and perhaps even a tourist stop? (We are after all just 2 hours away from Siem Reap)
All in all, Green Shoots are lucky to have a whole host of inspirations (such as permaculture, agroecology and farmer field schools and local agri-projects) and pride ourselves on being a small NGO that perpetually monitors and evaluates its activities. Our strength lies in strategising and changing tactics if something is not working.
The team are now doing village outreach work with banners and hand-outs at the ready. This week we are visiting nearly 10 villages in the vicinity informing residents about the new “school”, what courses we offer, how the courses are structured and who can attend. We plan to offer three main courses for the first Quarter of 2019. This includes: Horticulture Training/ Chicken Raising and Earthblock making. A few learning outcomes we want to achieve from the lessons are:
- Students understand the holistic nature of the Agritech Centre and see how all the components are intrinsically linked.
- An improved grasp of theoretical concepts around: Climate Change/ The role of smallholder farming and role of rural communities in food security
- Ultimately we want them to not only see the bigger picture but realise they play a key part in this.
- We want to instill ownership and responsibility of the site into the students.
There are challenges at hand– are people interested? What sets us apart? How can we ensure regular attendance? Our approach is to pilot a time table on rotation and offer students flexibility in attendance by gaining credits as and when they finish a course. Primarily because we are aiming at 16-25 year olds, that are out-of-school and they could be the ones contributing towards household incomes.
Simultaneously we are establishing partnerships with key Khmer companies such as Amru Rice and microfinance companies to compliment our trainings with enterprise development/ explaining loan cycles or just giving students a mock interview to prepare them.
If you were to ask me today, 2 January 2019, where we will be in one year? Besides the day-to-day running, I would say, we hope to organise a rural development hackathon. An event to inspire locally led problem solving and creating awareness about all the activities we complete on site…… And also plenty of output from our biogas system!
We are still accepting support for the running of this centre and if you would like more information, please contact Operations Manager, muneezay@greenshootsfoundation.org
