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Co-mentoring Visit of Heifer Philippines Team

 

To give Heifer Cambodia and Heifer Philippines programs a chance to learn from each other and growth together, a team of five staff from Heifer Philippines program made a co-mentoring visit to Heifer Cambodia program from February 25-29. The team is from regional program offices in Luzon, Mindanao, and Visayas of the Philippines. The purpose of the visit was for helping to build the capacity of the two Country Program Offices and, at the same time, the team would learn from Heifer Cambodia program and take the learning back to share to staff, project partners, and communities in the Philippines to achieve the three levels of impact in the project implementation. Accompanied by Heifer Cambodia team, on February 26, the visiting co-mentors left Phnom Penh for Pursat Province to visit two Heifer-funded projects supervised by Association Saving Poor Family for Development (ASPFD). At O’Thkoa Community, the team visited five partner families who shared their story and life change before and after participating in the project. Their living condition has been improved gradually since they received the gifts from Heifer in terms of livestock, poultry, agriculture equipment, and technical and non-technical trainings. The team was also fascinated with crop-rotation farming and animal management and feeding. “I will share the technique I learned here on urea rice straw to partner families in the Philippines. Instead of burning out the straw after rice harvest, the farmers can ferment it as ruminant feed with good quality,” said Sensoy, Program Officer for Mindanao. The team also conducted the reflection with the participation of local authorities, NGO partner, and community leader and members, in which some gifts from Philippine Woman Group were passed on to the participants. The gifts were translated by Mr. Reatrey, Executive Director of ASPFD, adding value that inspired the self help group (SHG) members to think of producing handicrafts from their local available resources to earn additional income for their saving scheme.

Early morning of February 27, the team left the provincial town of Pursat for another project site in Anlong Reap Village, Anlong Reap Commune, Vealveng District – a former Khmer Rouge area. After the reintegration with the Royal Government of Cambodia in 1998, the villagers started their new life with barehanded and with the government’s pledge in providing supports to improve infrastructure and their standard of living. But in 2002, Heifer’s assistance was the first one which had been there. Arriving at the village at lunch time, the team was warmly welcomed with hospitality by the community members who served delicious dishes prepared with the produces that were the output of the Heifer’s gifts. In a meeting with the participation of Along Reap Commune Council, Village Chiefs, community committee and SHG members, the community leader gave a brief history of the village and of the villages’ transformation of life over the pass five years after the participation in the Heifer project. The team was interested with saving group who has $800 in the current account besides the loaned amount by SHG members with 3% interest rate. “The community is very cohesive, cooperative and active group. Many original families passed on animal offspring beyond the amount required to pass on to other poor families. They passed on the offspring to new partner families not only within the community, but also in other communities,” said Nene, Program Officer for Visayas. The partner families shared their story and their idea on the Cornerstones principle which is a moral support to transform their life. They also keened to know about the Philippines. “The women are very empowerment as they could tell their story without any reservation. They speak to us, telling us what had happened before and what they are experiencing now,” said Pollen, Program Officer for Luzon. Since the SHG members have participated in the project, they stop going to the jungle to hunt wildlife, look for non-timber products and cut trees any more because they turned to do their farming instead with the assistance from the project for sustainable income and caring for the environment. Marcos, Program Officer for Visayas said, “The Cornerstones principle has been internalized within the community as men and women have worked together to combat the poverty and to increase their family income. I will share impact of the stories to the Philippine partner families.” In a reflection meeting on February 28, each department of Heifer Cambodia shared their best practices and lesson learned to the Heifer Philippine team. There were also exchanges of information, ideas and experiences between the two country programs, finding a feasible way to improve the programs for growth. “What I had observed during the field visit is that the valued-base holistic community development approach has been there since the project started in 2002. They formed the SHGs and saving scheme and worked together for their sustainable community. Though the project had been handed over to the community, the community’s activities are still active,” said Jun, Regional Program Manager for Mindanao.

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