News From the Field: 
Teaching the Next Generation of Farmers in Illocos Norte 

Students learn about germination testing. 
Last month, our Country Director, Karen, and two farmer facilitators, Letty and Ester traveled to Ilocos Norte where we conducted a one-day Seed School and two-day Introduction to Permaculture Course. This program was made possible through our collaboration with Nicholas Dotson, a current Peace Corps Volunteers. He first learned about our programs in August 2017, when we were featured in the National Peace Corps Association Worldview Magazine  (see article on page 34).   



L-R: Nicholas PCV and our Country Director, Karen Lee Hizola.

Nicholas worked in collaboration with his host site, the Ilocos Norte Agricultural College, to apply for and receive funding to host our trainings and launch a program called "Thoughtful Food" on the campus. The audience included nearly 60 participants and was primarily made up of 8th and 12th grade agriculture students. 



Students present their final project designs. 
It was inspiring for the young students to hear from our successful farmer facilitators, Letty and Ester, and see that farming is a sustainable way to build a livelihood. During the permaculture design course, students designed projects to be implemented on campus. For example, one project involved creating banana circles to help take care of biodegradable trash on campus. 

We are grateful to have helped plant a seed with these students about sustainable ways to engage in agriculture and look forward to seeing how they continue to implement what they learned. 
Up Coming Event

Join Us Tomorrow 
Thursday, April 18th for the
Film Screening of  ULAM: Main Dish
6-8pm at the Posner Center for International Development

Looking for a fun way to spend your Thursday evening in Denver?

Join us for the film screening of  ULAM:Main Dish a fantastic documentary film all about the rise of Filipino Food in the US and the Filipino Diaspora Story. 

Discounted Pre-Sale Tickets 
 
Register today so we have a good head count for snacks. Our friends at   Orange Crunch Food Truck and Catering  will be preparing some delicious Filipino Food for us to enjoy during the film. All funds raised will support our dedicated organic farming partners throughout the Philippines.

Welcome New Philippines Board Member
 Jeffery Sotero 

Join us in welcoming Jeffrey Sotero to the Global Seed Savers Philippines Board of Directors! 

Jeffrey has served as the Municipal Agriculture Officer in the Municipality of Tublay, Benguet since 2008. In this role he has been a tireless advocate for Global Seed Savers programs helping us launch our first Seed School in Tublay in December 2015. Thanks to his support our founding seed library is housed at the Municipal Agriculture Office and we continue to partner to host technical and capacity building trainings for farmers. In 2018, under Jeffrey's leadership, Tublay was given the distinguished honor of being named the top Organic Municipality in the Country at the National Organic Agriculture Congress of the Philippines.  He holds a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture Engineering from Benguet State University (BSU), the region's leading agriculture school. He is also currently completing his Master in Science in Rural Development degree, also at BSU.

In addition to his long leadership at the Municipal level, he also served for four years as a Barangay Council Member in Daclan, Tublay. He and his wife Connie, operate a beautiful organic farm in Daclan and are active members of the Benguet Association of Seed Savers (BASS). We are excited to welcome Jeffrey to the Philippines Board of Directors where he can share his local government expertise and passion for our mission to support our continued expansion and collaborative partnerships throughout the Philippines.
Praxis Fellowship Received for 
Monitoring and Evaluation Courses 

Global Seed Savers is honored to have received the Praxis Fellowship through the Posner Center for International Development. This fellowship is enabling our Executive Director, Sherry, and our Country Director, Karen, to participate in a two-part series of eight Graduate Courses being taught at the Posner Center through the Regis University Development Practice program  focusing on Monitoring and Evaluation.

We just completed the first four courses where we learned how to design and develop outcome maps, identify our primary program partners, and gained important tools and processes to better design and monitor the intended and unintended outcomes of our work in the field. 

In addition to gaining this important knowledge we have enjoyed participating virtually in the courses with colleagues from over eight different countries around the world!  Thanks to the Posner Center for supporting our participation and awarding our full team the Spring Praxis Fellowship. 
Global Seed Savers

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