http://viewchange.org Videos from ViewChange.org (Filtered by topics: Subsistence farming) en-us Wed, 05 Oct 2011 09:58:00 +0000 Copyright 2011 Link Media, Inc. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/orange-fleshed-sweet-potatoes Sometimes the best solution to a complex problem is the simplest. In the Lake Victoria region of Tanzania, communities are tackling the root causes of blindness and malnutrition by switching from white-fleshed to orange-fleshed sweet potatoes. Wed, 05 Oct 2011 09:58:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/orange-fleshed-sweet-potatoes Tanzania, Agriculture & Food, Malnutrition, Blindness, Vitamin A, Africa, Vitamin A deficiency, Subsistence farming, Lake Victoria, Sub-Saharan Africa >> TITLE: Helen Keller International >> TITLE: Complex problems, simple solutions: eat orange for sight and life-saving vitamin A. >> TITLE: Lake Victoria Region, Tanzania >> MARY KABATI [Coordinator for HKI's Local Partner]: The sweet potato is very important to a Tanzanian woman, especially one who comes from around Lake Victoria. Sweet potatoes have been there for years, but they are mostly white-fleshed. Those are the ones that you commonly see at the market. Orange-fleshed sweet potatoes are quite different. They have good color; you want to eat them. In addition, they have an added value of vitamin A. >> TITLE: Complex problems, simple solutions: vitamin A deficiency is the number one cause of childhood blindness and also compromises the immune system, increasing risk of death. HKI promotes the production and consumption of vitamin A-rich foods like orange-fleshed sweet potatoes to reduce vitamin A deficiency. >> MARY KABATI: When we heard about the orange-fleshed sweet potatoes and their importance to health, we thought that now is the time to move from white-fleshed and introduce the orange-fleshed sweet potatoes to our target communities. >> MARGARET BENJAMIN [HKI Nutrition Coordinator]: We think that promoting orange-fleshed sweet potatoes will be a very good idea, since it is a nutrient-rich crop with a lot of vitamin A. Our children will be having a double advantage: they are having a vitamin A-rich food as well as getting the calories that they need for the day. >> THERESA KIYEGA [Mother and Farmer]: At first we were surprised because we had different potato seeds. But after we harvested, they were all the same - sweet and soft. We like them. >> MARY KABATI: We found out that they were very popular among women and children. >> THERESA KIYEGA: We planted the seeds on the fourth of January, and after one month we weeded, and we weeded again one month after that. In April, the potatoes were ready to be harvested. In May we were taught to cook them differently. Now we cook them on our own. >> MARY KABATI: With the orange-fleshed sweet potato, you can prepare a variety of dishes. You can prepare good weaning food like porridge. You can prepare some samosas, cakes, biscuits, crisps, which also can be marketable. If you want to have a good income, instead of just selling fresh roots, you can sell products. >> THERESA KIYEGA: Now that we have completed the training, we see that this program will bring us great benefits if we receive it well and work on it. We will improve the income in the family. If I roast the potatoes, we will be able to sell the chips. >> MARY KABATI: Once the communities were told about the benefits of vitamin A, they nicknamed the potato, "medicinal potato," because it does so many things for the body. I think we can make it so that the children will not be deficient in vitamin A anymore. >> TITLE: Helen Keller International, www.hki.org http://www.viewchange.org/videos/farming-school-for-aids-orphans-in-mozambique The Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Program have set up an innovative school system with a focus on agriculture for AIDS orphans in Mozambique. There are thought to be more than 470,000 orphans in this country, and in these schools they are given the chance to learn farming skills so they will be able to grow their own food in the future. Wed, 13 Apr 2011 12:12:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/farming-school-for-aids-orphans-in-mozambique AIDS, Sub-Saharan Africa, Mozambique, Subsistence farming, Food and Agriculture Organization, AIDS orphan, Agriculture, Africa, Agriculture & Food, Education >> VOICEOVER: The beat of a drum, dancing, and singing -- a brief escape from a harsh reality. These children here in rural Mozambique are but a handful of the 11 million AIDS orphans in Sub-Saharan Africa. What happens to them now, with no parents to teach them how to farm their land and no parents to protect them? A key to their survival is subsistence farming, and that's exactly what they're learning here at one of the nearly 30 "Junior Farmer Field and Life Schools" throughout central Mozambique. Kids learn hands-on lessons in agriculture: how to prepare fields, sow, irrigate, and harvest. Tradition is passed on as they're taught about indigenous crops and the power of medicinal plants. It's all about becoming independent and self-sufficient, say these classmates. >> ZACARIAS MANUEL: Since we've been learning new things here we've been doing them back home too, and we're getting good results. >> VICERNE BAPTISTA: So now we are teaching other people too. >> VOICEOVER: But the children here are taught about more than just the basics of farming. Through counseling and dance, they're learning to build new self-esteem and a new type of family. And lessons in basic business skills offer a first step toward a future as working farmers. It's a model that has seen early success, a model that has now spread to Kenya, Namibia, and neighboring Zambia. The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations prepared this report. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/entrepreneurs-in-burkina-faso With drought prevailing in areas bordering the Saharan desert, farmers in Burkina Faso are exploring alternative ways to generate income. The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) supports a program that provides training and support to people with ideas that could be transformed into successful business ventures. Wed, 30 Mar 2011 08:16:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/entrepreneurs-in-burkina-faso Africa, Microfinance, Agriculture & Food, International Fund for Agricultural Development, Burkina Faso, Entrepreneur, Sahara, Subsistence farming, United Nations >> VOICEOVER: Ninety-five percent of the people in Burkina Faso -- a small landlocked African country -- depend on agriculture to earn a living. Koudougou Lamoussa is the father of six children. He was a subsistence farmer, barely surviving on these drought-prone lands bordering the Saharan desert. He strongly believed that there was another way to make a living. He wanted to start his own business. In Burkina Faso, donkey carts had become an affordable and popular way of transporting goods and people. No one was manufacturing them in the village. Koudougou wanted to be the first. >> KOUDOUGOU LAMOUSSA: I could never earn enough as a farmer to pay for all my family's needs. I was certain with this kind of metal work, I could earn more money and buy everything we needed. >> VOICEOVER: Koudougou knew little about business. He had no money and no hope of getting a bank loan. Mamadou Sanou, an industrial technologist, helped him.>> MAMADOU SANOU: It's a vicious circle. We can't borrow money so we can't develop our business ideas. We go around in circles and stay eternally poor.>> VOICEOVER: With a USD$1,800 loan, Koudougou bought the materials to make donkey carts for his first batch of customers. After one year, he added four more workers and expanded his business. Now he manufactures desk frames for local schools. Entrepreneurship could spark economic growth by creating new job opportunities. Now, a number of new programs are unleashing the entrepreneurial spirit among the poorest segments of the population. This one in Burkina Faso is known as PAMER. Supported by IFAD, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, it provides farmers with training and support needed to turn ideas -- like this milling operation -- into profitable businesses. These women were encouraged by Koudougou's success. They began to bring the raw paddy to be husked at the new mill. They are now much better off because the rice fetches a higher price on the local market. The profits are small but it makes a huge difference for them. >> MAMADOU SANOU: What we do in this project is awaken the spirit of business. We give people the sense of what an entrepreneur is. After that they say, what I learned gives me the power to do something for myself.>> VOICEOVER: The PAMER project is now being duplicated in other parts of Burkina Faso, with the expectation of assisting more than 2,500 entrepreneurs within three years. James Heer prepared this report for the United Nations. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/feast-and-sacrifice Deya and his large extended family live in a tiny village in Senegal, on the ragged edges of globalization and immigration. Questions of work and ambition arise as the family prepares for Tabaski, the biggest holiday of the year. Fri, 18 Mar 2011 08:19:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/feast-and-sacrifice Senegal, Agriculture & Food, LinkTV Picks, Education, Immigration, Gender, Dakar, Women's work, Cattle, Gender equality >> DEYA: This is Saare Muudu, Senegal. I was born here. This is the only place I know. This is the cow pasture. Cows are like money, like cars. Cows are everything. Here, there are lots of problems. After the farming season, no one works. They don't earn money. If you have problems, there's no money. Instead, you sell a cow. If I sell a cow this month, next month I'll have another problem and sell another cow. Before long, I'll be all out of cows. >> VOICEOVER: Deya's household, one of four in the village, includes Deya's two wives, each of Deya's two brothers? two wives, fifteen children, seventy-seven cows, and dozens of sheep, goats, and chickens. Today the family is preparing for the biggest holiday of the year: Tabaski, the Islamic Feast of the Sacrifice. >> TITLE: Feast & Sacrifice >> KANNI: It's a big celebration, the Tabaski holiday. Everyone's happy. People buy clothes, buy shoes. Everyone buys a ram. On Tabaski, they kill it. They go to town, buy bread, buy potatoes, sweet potatoes, seasoning, macaroni, buy everything, lots of pepper. Cook until it's good, the whole family eats. >> VOICEOVER: To see how big Tabaski is in Senegal, you have to go to the capital, Dakar. At Tabaski, it?s a religious, and social, expectation for Muslim households to buy and slaughter a ram. >> MAN: You've got ones for $40, $50, $60, $100, $165, $185, $200, $300, $400, $1000. >> VOICEOVER: In Senegal, where a day?s wages, if you have work, are around three dollars, this is a big deal. And for Deya in Saare Muudu, where paid work is scarce, the Tabaski ram and other holiday foods are major purchases.>> DEYA: This is what's in my bag today. >> INTERVIEWER: How much is that?>> DEYA: $10.50.>> INTERVIEWER: $10.50 is enough to buy food?>> DEYA: Not enough. I'll sell some grain. I'll have more cash here, and then I'll buy food. With this, I can buy oil, two liters, then it's done. This here, this can buy tomato paste. One can, I think, is $1.25. That leaves 60¢. I can buy salt.>> KANNI: I think my sauce will be tasty today, if Allah wills it.>> WOMAN: It better be good, you've got lots of vegetables. >> VOICEOVER: The household relies on money from Deya?s two brothers, Maliki and Alahji, who are working in Spain. >> VOICEOVER: Alahji, Kanni?s husband, was the first of Deya?s brothers to leave. >> ALAHJI: I left Senegal in 1999. I came here seeking something. I?m helping my children until they can live a good life. >> KANNI: My husband?s in Spain. I miss him! If we don?t have grain, they can send money. People can buy rice, buy grain, they?ll eat. >> VOICEOVER: Maliki, Kanni?s brother-in-law, is visiting for Tabaski. He went to Spain in 2003, but returns almost every year to visit the family. >> MALIKI: Look at our household: it?s full of people. But only three people work. Maliki, Alahji, Deya. You know women don't have work. The women, what work do they do?>> INTERVIEWER: They work...>> MALIKI: They don't work at all. >> KANNI: Women's work? Women pound grain. Women cook. Women pull water. Women sweep. Women clean. Women collect firewood. Women pull water. Women wash clothes. Women have a lot of work! >> INTERVIEWER: Men refuse to help the women? >> DEYA: They don't help!>> INTERVIEWER: Why?>> DEYA: That's just how people do it in this country. Senegal, that's just how it is. >> AADAMA: You know the holiday work? We?ll cook sauce. We?ll eat till we?re full! We?ll cook so much sauce! >> GIRL: What about seasoning? You have money?>> AADAMA: We'll buy a box of seasoning. I'll save one packet. That night, we'll buy macaroni. We'll cook sauce with onions. >> MALIKI: We left the country and we went to Spain. We work there, earn a little. We bring it here. But really, farming's better. We know farming's better for us. >> USUMAN: Boys, they don't want to farm! If I go to Europe, Spain, I'll go, go, go, until I get to Spain. In Spain, I?ll get lots of money. I'll take everyone here and build floors way up high! I'll build floors way up! I'll have a house in town, a house in Dakar. I?ll go to Dakar and relax. >> MALIKI: If you say it?s hard [in Spain], they think it?s just talk, but it?s not really hard. If someone says, ?I want to go,? you tell him, ?Stay here and work. Here?s better than there.? He?ll say, ?Why don?t you stay here? If here?s better, you stay here, too!? But you can?t stay! . >> MALIKI: Why are you doing it like that? It's spilling.>> KANNI: So it doesn't spill? You just pick it up.>> MALIKI: Who picks it up? >> KANNI: Everybody does! Every time it spills, I pick it up!>> MALIKI: You know this happens, you're a grown woman. You shouldn't be lazy.>> KANNI: Do you do this work? Can you say what shouldn't spill?>> MALIKI: That's not true. Put a sack down to catch what spills.>> KANNI: I couldn't even find a tiny bag, I looked.>> WOMAN: Usuman, turn it down! He said to turn your radio down!>> MALIKI: All is well there? >> MALIKI: You?re all healthy? Praise Allah. I can?t talk, my phone credit will run out. >> TITLE: Market Day>> VOICEOVER: It is the day before Tabaski, and Kanni?s going to town to buy food for the holiday with the money Deya has set aside. >> DEYA: Abdoulaye, bring me my bag! Go buy what that'll get you. >> VOICEOVER: The cost of the holiday foods, vegetables, macaroni, adds up quickly. >> SHOPKEEPER: This is $6.50. >> KANNI: $6.50? Only $6, Daouda! This here, how much now?>> SHOPKEEPER: All of it? $11.07. >> KANNI: $11.07?>> SHOPKEEPER: Yes.>> VOICEOVER: Usually, village meals are predictable. Millet couscous. Corn couscous. Peanut sauce. More peanut sauce. Very few vegetables. Saare Muudu started a vegetable garden three years ago. It was part of a Peace Corps development project, requested by the village.>> KANNI: We grew a lot there! Mint, okra, hibiscus. But men don't garden. Only women water it, tend it. But last year women couldn't garden. Gardening's hard work, you know? Me, I was pregnant. Bomel was pregnant. Fanta was pregnant. Bamba's household, you see? Bobel, Kumba, all of them. Sambajo's two wives. One gave birth, one was pregnant. Tuuta's household, Juulde, Aljuma, Kaijel. They were all pregnant. You can't do garden work if you're pregnant. Last year I was so sick, I thought I'd die. >> VOICEOVER: In 2008, Kanni?s then16-year-old daughter, Maymuna, left the village to live with her father, Alahji, in Spain. >> TITLE: Cassa de la Selva, Spain>> MAYMUNA: In Saare Muudu, you?re fourteen, or fifteen and they say, ?She?s grown! Give her a husband!? That?s what they told me. I said, ?No. Me, I don?t want a husband. Bring me to Spain, I?ll work. I?ll get a husband there.? Because, you see, in Africa, you get a husband, you get a lot of babies! If little kids have husbands, it?s bad. >> VOICEOVER: But for Aadama, Maymuna?s little sister, these are open questions. >> INTERVIEWER: How old are you now?>> KANNI: No, leave your shirt alone! Say six years old. Say you're six years old. >> AADAMA: Six years!>> KANNI: Six.>> INTERVIEWER: When Aadama is a little older, she'll go to Spain?>> KANNI: Aadama? I don't think she'll go to Spain. Aadama won?t go. >> INTERVIEWER: She'll go to school, or she'll get married?>> KANNI: I think she'll go to school because Deya said she will marry her cousin. I think she'll go to school until she's big. That's good. >> INTERVIEWER: And how old will Aadama be when she gets married?>> KANNI: I think she'll be 18. >> INTERVIEWER: And you, when you were married?>> KANNI: Only 15 years old! Fifteen years old. I had a husband. >> INTERVIEWER: You were a little kid.>> KANNI: Just a little kid! I was just a little kid. Only 15 years old. I had a husband. >> INTERVIEWER: But you agreed to it?>> KANNI: I hadn't studied, I didn't know anything. I'd never gone to school. Back then, if your parents said they gave you to a husband, you said yes. You were afraid to refuse. >> TITLE: The Day of Tabaski>> VOICEOVER: On the morning of Tabaski, Maliki buys bread as a breakfast treat. New clothes are given out as presents. >> MALIKI: Allah requires the ram. A long time ago, a prophet wanted to sacrifice a ram. >> DEYA: He wanted to, but he didn't have a ram. He said he'd use his child. He asked his child, "Do you agree?" The child said, "Yes, I agree. Do it." Allah removed the child and put a ram there instead. Now everyone does this. >> MALIKI: When I was a little kid, there weren't many problems. There were only two concerns: farming and herding. Not a single other problem. There were lots of people, but no lack of grain. Every year, the rains were good. People, their hearts were alive. You understand? Their hearts were alive. Work was all they wanted. They didn't dream of going anywhere. They didn't dream of going overseas. They didn't dream of anything. If the rains just came, everyone dreamed, "If I work, I'll have lots of grain." >> IMAM: Allahu Akbar.>> MALIKI: Now, people want money. To wear good clothes, wear good shoes. They want everything. Everything. There's no work, who can do that?>> DEYA: Sadu! Come on! Stop, Mahamadou. There. >> VOICEOVER: The ram slaughter follows religious guidelines. The ram lies with its neck facing Mecca, and the men say a blessing as the throat is cut.>> MAYMUNA: That's Kanni's field. Senegal's better, to me. >> INTERVIEWER: Why?>> MAYMUNA: Why? Because here, you stay at your house. You don't go out, don?t know many people. I go to school, I come back, I cook, I eat, I sit and watch TV. When that's done, I sleep. But in Senegal you don't sit around. You go to all the households, like one family. >> KANNI: Mamadou, in Dakar. >> AADAMA: That's Mamadou?>> KANNI: That?s Mamadou, that's me. This is Aadama. This is Maymuna, here. That's the only photo, I don't have any others of Maymuna. Here's Alahji on a motorcycle, going to town. I was on the motorcycle! I took the photo! Kids have gone to Spain. If they go to Spain, if they study, they can work some, they can help their father. >> INTERVIEWER: But you aren't going to go? >> KANNI: Me, I won't go. >> INTERVIEWER: Why not?>> KANNI: I can't go! The kids can't take me, their dad says I won't go! I'll only be here. Their dad refuses. He says he'll only take kids. >> INTERVIEWER: Why?>> KANNI: I don't know why. Because I think they only like to take kids. >> WOMAN 1: You put in macaroni?>> WOMAN 2: I already did!>> VOICEOVER: For the Tabaski meal, people eat in groups. All the girls, the boys, the men, and the women travel to each compound to share some of each family?s food. >> WOMAN: Come on, let's go! >> INTERVIEWER: Later on, do you want to live in Spain?>> MAYMUNA: No, I want to go home. >> INTERVIEWER: Tell me about that.>> MAYMUNA: Because if you only live here, it?s no good, because your family is there. My mom had a baby, he won?t know me. He?ll say, ?Who?s Maymuna?? I?ll stay here until I?ve helped my whole family, then I?ll go home. >> INTERVIEWER: Soon, or a long time from now?>> MAYMUNA: A long time from now. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/carina-water-wells-project <p>When a new water well and rainwater harvesting tank are built at Kwihala village and Isukamahela School in Tanzania, the villagers are taught how to manage and look after them, a key component for empowering them towards self-sufficiency.</p> Sat, 04 Sep 2010 02:15:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/carina-water-wells-project Tanzania, Water well, Millennium Development Goals, Drinking water, Tabora, Subsistence farming, Rainwater harvesting, Water supply, Agriculture, Fundraising >> TITLE: Carina Water Wells Project. Tabora, Tanzania. >> JACQUELINE SIMONE AMBROSE [Project Coordinator]: I grew up in Tanzania from 1949 to 1970. In December 2003, I returned to visit Tabora in central Tanzania for the first time in 38 years. I was married there in 1963 and my daughter Carina was born in 1964. The population has tripled since then, and the majority of villages still haven't got a clean source of water. The area's economy is dependent on agriculture, subsistence farming using a hand hoe. The Tabora Anglican Diocese has been implementing water sanitation projects since 1997, but funding sources had dried up. They asked me to assist by finding more money for additional projects. Although I now live on the other side of the world, in Maui, Hawaii, I rose to the challenge. Funds were donated by a business associate and the first Carina Water Well was installed at Inonelwa village in February 2005. Inonelwa village has since become a part of the Millennium Development Goals. >> JACQUELINE SIMONE AMBROSE: Tabora district is fortunate because the underground water is close enough to the surface in places to allow for hand-dug wells. The well at Kwihala village is 18 feet deep; the one at Inonelwa village is only 13 feet deep. Women and children are the most affected by water issues, because they're responsible for finding it. They often have to walk up to 5 kilometers daily to find water which is dirty and contaminated. It took four more years to raise money for the second Carina Water Wells project. It's located at Kwihala village close to Dr. David Livingstone's museum. The well and a rainwater harvesting tank at the village school were funded by the Rotary Club of Maui in 2009. >> JACQUELINE SIMONE AMBROSE: Christopher Nyamwanji, has over 15 years of experience working on water sanitation projects in Tabora District. The program is very well planned and implemented, involving the villagers at every phase of development. The wells are hand dug. Molds for the concrete rings are brought to the site and the concrete is mixed right there. The rings are then placed in the well cavity manually, and with the use of ropes. It takes about six weeks to complete construction of a well, including the water sanitation education phase. Approximately 250 to 350 people use the wells. >> JACQUELINE SIMONE AMBROSE: The village water committee is responsible for fundraising within the community to establish a water fund to maintain the well structure, and for resolving any inadequate water supply problems. Thus, the villagers both own and sustain the wells and rainwater catchment tanks. >> JACQUELINE SIMONE AMBROSE: The Carina Water Wells project provides enough funds to include water sanitation promotion and hygiene education to the villagers. Raising the level of awareness within the communities, to understand good hygiene and sanitation practices for their improved health, is crucial to the success of the projects. An additional rainwater harvesting tank was built at Isukamahela School, in Tabora district. The American Society of Dowsers sponsored the project. A staple diet of maize meal is cooked at the school for the children. Having access to a water supply close by makes their lives much easier. School attendance during the peak of the dry season is about 70 percent, but jumps to 98 percent attendance in the rainy season. >> JACQUELINE SIMONE AMBROSE: I plan continuing my efforts to raise funds for more Carina Water Wells Projects. Without water there is no life. >> TITLE: "If real development is to take place, the people have to be involved." Julius Kambarage Nyerere, from his book Uhuru na Maendeleo (Freedom and Development), 1973 >> TITLE: www.carinawaterwells.org http://www.viewchange.org/videos/rising-voices-dreams-for-my-daughter In rural Ghana, children often struggle to get an education, with girls missing out far more frequently than boys of a similar age. But 12-year-old Elizabeth Napari, through her family's sacrifice, is taking advantage of changing attitudes. Mon, 23 Aug 2010 01:43:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/rising-voices-dreams-for-my-daughter Ghana, Education, UNICEF, Africa, Poverty, Primary school, Rural area, Gender, Subsistence farming, Agriculture >> TITLE: Rising Voices>> TITLE: Dreams for My Daughter >> ELIZABETH NAPARI: My name is Elizabeth. I come from Tarikpaa. I am 12 years old.>> VOICEOVER: Elizabeth Napari is making the one-hour trek from her village to the family farm. There, her parents, Peter and Ayishetu, toil as subsistence farmers, feeding a family of six on what they can grow. >> ELIZABETH NAPARI: We farm yam and maize and cassava.>> VOICEOVER: It's a cycle of poverty and illiteracy that goes back for generations, until Elizabeth. For this child can re-write her entire family history by getting an education.>>ELIZABETH NAPARI: I want to look after my parents.>> VOICEOVER: It's a heavy goal for any child, but for Elizabeth, whose father had to drop out of school to work these same fields, this is the stuff of dreams.>> BIIKOOK KONLAN [UNICEF Educations Officer]: Without education, you have no future in this part of the country. >> VOICEOVER: And no one knows that struggle better than Education Officer Biikook Konlan. >> BIIKOOK KONLAN: I relate to Elizabeth. I came from an ordinary background. Elizabeth is coming from an ordinary background. I came from a rural community. Elizabeth is coming from a rural community, and our parents are both illiterate. They are peasant farmers, and yet I rose to do my bachelor's. I've done my master's, and I'm working with UNICEF as an education officer. You just need perseverance and focus that there is light at then end of the tunnel.>> ELIZABETH NAPARI: Because I'll know many things in the world when I go to school.>> PETER NAPARI [Elizabeth's father]: This is the maize we grind to prepare porridge.>> BIIKOOK KONLAN: Elizabeth's father went to school up to grade three and dropped out.>> VOICEOVER: Peter's father needed his son's help on the farm to make ends meet, a common problem in this poor community. >> PETER NAPARI: I am regretting it today. My life would have been better than this. >> BIIKOOK KONLAN: The child in the rural area, seeing that the parents are ordinary, struggling to make ends meet -- if I have to break this cycle that my parents are going through in terms of being farmers or peasant farmers, then the only hope is for me to study.>> PETER NAPARI: This is my house, which I mixed mortar to build. >> VOICEOVER: Elizabeth is the eldest of the four Napari children still at home, a daughter in a culture that traditionally prizes sons.>> PETER NAPARI: I see Elizabeth is good in school, so I am determined to help her to succeed in education.>> VOICEOVER: Peter makes sure his daughter and her siblings go to school each and every day. >> VOICEOVER: "Johnny, Johnny, Johnny," the children sing at morning assembly. "He's my boy. I send him to school to learn how to write his name." It's the same song Biikook sang as a boy, but at this child-friendly school, the emphasis is as much on girls as it is on boys. Traditionally, in this village, girls get married, not educated.>> BIIKOOK KONLAN: The parents consider that, when your daughter becomes a woman in your home, then the next month she should be married out. Otherwise, she would become immoral, and that would bring a case upon you, the parents. That is actually an obstacle to girls' education in this community.>> VOICEOVER: Tarikpaa is an agricultural village in the north of Ghana, near the city of Tamale. The Napari children are educated here at Tarikpaa Primary School, along with some 400 other village kids. Elizabeth is in grade six. Her younger brother is in kindergarten.>> CHILDREN: I eat to grow.>> ELIZABETH DE-SOUZA [Northern Regional Director of Education, Ghana]: Tarikpaa Primary School is one of the schools in the northern region that UNICEF has supported.>> VOICEOVER: Ghana's Regional Education Director, Elizabeth De-Souza, is a champion of the child-friendly school's approach.>> ELIZABETH DE-SOUZA: Looking at the three principles -- child-centered, democratic participation of the children, and inclusiveness principles -- we have all these principles at work in the school. >> BOY [Student]: L-I-N-G. Kneeling. >> ENOCH ABUKARI [Teacher]: Is he correct?>> CHILDREN: Yes.>> ENOCH ABUKARI: Clap for him.>> ELIZABETH DE-SOUZA: It's a safe environment where we have all the facilities like the school playing field, the school infrastructure. They are all child-centered. There is democratic participation by the child in the classroom. It's a place that the child can freely express himself or herself. She can freely ask questions.>> ENOCH ABUKARI: Elizabeth.>> ELIZABETH NAPARI: They were going home from school.>> VOICEOVER: Elizabeth's class has 42 students in it. Materials are in short supply, as are trained teachers.>> ENOCH ABUKARI: I was born and bred in the village. The way I suffered before I became who I am today, I feel I should do the same to help those who are also in the village.>> VOICEOVER: Enoch Abukari is one of only two teachers here with any formal training, something child-friendly schools are committed to changing. >> BIIKOOK KONLAN: So that actually also goes to impinge on quality, in terms of delivery, in terms of the absorption of the children, on their ultimate learning outcomes at the end of grade six or nine.>> ELIZABETH NAPARI: Ghana. Your Ghana. My Ghana. Our Ghana. Ghana, the land of peace, land of riches, land of ...>> VOICEOVER: Outside the open-air classes, village life drifts past. A herd of cows is tended by a not-so-lucky village boy.>> BOY [Herder]: I was attending school and I got to class six when my father withdrew me.>> VOICEOVER: Echoing Peter Napari's story, the boy tells us his father needs him to tend cattle.>> BOY: I wish I could be in school.>> VOICEOVER: Keeping children in school is a major battle for educators in Ghana.>> ELIZABETH DE-SOUZA: Some of them still drop out of school to support their parents or sometimes to go to the south to look for jobs, which sometimes are not there, opening them to a whole lot of hazards.>> VOICEOVER: Traditionally, the north of Ghana has provided unskilled labor for the more developed south. Less than half the men from this area are educated.>> BIIKOOK KONLAN: If I didn't have an opportunity to go to school, I would have been living the life that Mr. Peter Napari is living today. Without education, you have to just till the land, or you become a laborer down south to weed on the cocoa farm or in the mines.>> VOICEOVER: But child-friendly schools are striking at the heart of this problem by managing to keep children in school. >> ENOCH ABUKARI: Ellie, you wanted to read first? Okay. >> VOICEOVER: One tool in this battle is an attractive and relevant curriculum. >> ELIZABETH NAPARI: Asabiah fixed a bike. Fatima, Georgina, and Asabiah were walking home from school. >> VOICEOVER: Education is free in Ghana, but that doesn't mean there aren't heavy costs for families.>> BIIKOOK KONLAN: They are not able to support their children, both boys and girls, in terms of buying their schoolbooks, clothing, and other items that would make their children be comfortable to learn in the school.>> ELIZABETH NAPARI: This one is my notebook in English. >> VOICEOVER: The greatest sacrifice, though, may be the loss of the child's labor.>> PETER NAPARI: Though she doesn't contribute as much to the household chores and farm work, which has increased our burdens, we are still determined that she completes her schooling.>> VOICEOVER: Helping ease the amount of daily chores is directly related to freeing kids up for school. >> ELIZABETH NAPARI: I went to fetch water for my family every morning.>> VOICEOVER: And fetching water is one of the most intensive chores of all. Here, UNICEF has made an invaluable contribution to the community by providing ample clean water through wells, so it no longer consumes Elizabeth's day. At school, there are also two wells, also separate toilets for girls and boys. Elizabeth and her best friend, Naomi, diligently practice the good hygiene they are learning at school. >> NAOMI: Our teachers taught us how to wash our hands before eating.>> ELIZABETH NAPARI: Because if you didn't wash your hands and go home and use it to eat, you'll get disease from that.>> ELIZABETH DE-SOUZA: Whatever she learns in school has effects in the home, and this is for the benefits for the parents and for the other siblings. >> PETER NAPARI: Yes, she has taught me many things. She tells us that they have been taught in school to be neat and always wash their hands with soap after using the toilet and before eating. Now she cleans the house any time she sees it's dirty. >> VOICEOVER: Elizabeth's day begins at dawn. All the hours before and after school are consumed with chores. >> ELIZABETH NAPARI: When I wake up in the morning, I will pray, and come and wash my face and brush my teeth and bathe and go and fetch some water and drink porridge and go to school.>> BIIKOOK KONLAN: When she closes from school at 1:30, after she arrives home, she sets off again to go and fetch water from the borehole, comes home, sees the compound again and supports the mother to prepare the evening meal. >> ELIZABETH NAPARI: This is the fire. We are cooking in the fire. >> BIIKOOK KONLAN: After the evening meal, if she gets the opportunity, that is, if she's not too tired, she uses the one bulb that is in the house to study. >> VOICEOVER: It's a grueling schedule, but Elizabeth's mother sees new maturity in her daughter, and she credits the school.>> AYISHETU NAPARI [Elizabeth's mother]: There is a difference now. When she was not in school, she did not like cooking, but now she is in school she will voluntarily do her work.>> VOICEOVER: For the women of Tarikpaa, life has always been about work, starting at a very early age. Young daughters are routinely given away to relatives as gifts of labor. It's a practice called "fosterage." Elizabeth's mother was also given away to relatives. >> AYISHETU NAPARI: I took care of the children. Every morning I had to sell cola nuts before returning home to fetch water for the family. Afterwards, I would go to the bush for firewood. I think that, because I was an adopted child, that was why I did not go to school. >> VOICEOVER: And she, in turn, has given three of Elizabeth's older sisters to fosterage, yet there is no question in her mind that if she had gone to school, her life would be quite different today. >> AYISHETU NAPARI: I wouldn't have been like this. Maybe I would have had meaningful work. >> ELIZABETH DE-SOUZA: Through the sensitization of parents, they grow to know the importance, because the child is not just living for today. Every child has a future.>> ELIZABETH NAPARI: I want to be a doctor because there is no hospital or doctor in this village. >> VOICEOVER: School is giving Elizabeth a place to grow her dreams. >> ELIZABETH NAPARI: I-N-S-I-S-T-E-D. Insisted.>> ENOCH ABUKARI: Is she correct?>> CHILDREN: Yes.>> ENOCH ABUKARI: Clap for her.>> ELIZABETH NAPARI: If I become a doctor, I will have money to buy a car so that if any sick person is referred to another hospital for treatment, they will use my car to transport the patient. >> ENOCH ABUKARI: I said, "That is a good idea. It's really a nice dream." So, I said what you need to do is study hard, be a good girl, don't play about when it is time for you to study, and don't follow bad friends. Make sure you are always on your books, and do everything you can so that you become who you want to be.>> VOICEOVER: Attracting committed teachers like Enoch Abukari to the rural areas and supporting them once they get there is critical to the school's success. >> ENOCH ABUKARI: Life in the village is not all that easy. You don't get facilities like electricity. Things like hospitals are not there. We don't have good drinking water in the village.>> VOICEOVER: To help draw teachers, the school has built a new teacher dormitory right next door.>> ENOCH ABUKARI: This is the cottage to Tarikpaa Primary School. Seven teachers live here, and this is where I live, too. These are the things I use to fetch my water, and this is what I use to prepare my meals. This thing you see is something we use to keep chicken. I made it with the children in my class. I taught them how to weave. We are yet to complete it in our next lesson of creative arts. The most important thing is to get up in the morning, go to your workplace ... to teach, go and teach, come back, and get a place to sleep.>> VOICEOVER: Having teachers live on campus also cuts down on rampant teacher absenteeism, a serious problem in Ghana. On average, teachers miss about 43 days in a school year. But not in Tarikpaa. Here, the goal is to fully integrate school and community, and its success is evident at a packed parent-teacher association meeting. This parent asks about monitoring children when parents are away for long hours during the harvest. It all works because, through the child-friendly school approach, the emphasis on participation has made parents the clear stakeholders. >> ELIZABETH DE-SOUZA: They regard them as part of the school, so they have regular meetings with them to discuss challenges and other issues in connection with the school, so they involve them from the word go, so that they also sensitize them that they are part and parcel of the school, so they are involved in decision-making, not just demanding things from them. >> VOICEOVER: And no one is more on board than the village chief, Abukari Alhassan. He tells us their heroes were once their greatest warriors, but now, he says, our heroes are our children, our children who go to school. And with that, he blesses his own kids and sends them off to Tarikpaa Primary School. Still, changing traditional views on men's and women's roles is a slow process for this village. Gender sensitization is an important aspect of the school. A school play depicts the bias against educating girls. >> GIRL: Allyma must go to school.>> BOY: Do not speak like that, woman. School is good for boys. Don't you know that girls who go to school are not respectful? >> GIRL: That is not true. Can't you see our daughter is a smart girl? She will do well in school and make us proud.>> BOY: Girls don't go to school. It is not good to marry a woman who has gone to school. >> GIRL: Who says so?>> BOY: The woman's place is in the kitchen and for doing household chores. >> VOICEOVER: Yet Elizabeth's father could not be further from the local male stereotype.>> PETER NAPARI: I am different from my peers because I tasted school a little and know its benefits. There are women teachers in the school and female doctors in the hospital. These are the things that motivate me to send my daughter to school. >> VOICEOVER: But when we asked Elizabeth about her father's sacrifice, she grew silent, even tearful, and would not answer. >> PETER NAPARI: She may be feeling that life should have been better for us. When she thinks of the hardship that we are going through, it makes her weep. >> ENOCH ABUKARI: I think she is just thinking about the family, and where they are coming from. >> VOICEOVER: Remembering all the while her father's failed dream and the price he is paying for her. >> BIIKOOK KONLAN: With focus and determination, you can come from the ordinary and grow up to be somebody. I'm sure that Elizabeth is also going to make it with determination and focus. >> PETER NAPARI: We know that, one day, if she completes her schooling and we are still alive, we will benefit from the sacrifices that we are making today. >> VOICEOVER: A parent's gift to his beloved daughter, and a loving daughter's determination to fulfill the dream. >> TITLE: [end credits]>> TITLE: This film brought to you through the support of UNICEF>> TITLE: Public Affairs Media Group http://www.viewchange.org/videos/mexico-coping-with-soaring-food-prices <p>Soaring food prices are making life hard for people everywhere. In Mexico, many families are taking the fight against the global food crisis into their own hands.&nbsp;</p> Tue, 06 Jul 2010 23:55:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/mexico-coping-with-soaring-food-prices Mexico, Food security, Food price rises 2007-2008, Subsistence farming, Drought, Agriculture, Staple food, Irrigation, Food and Agriculture Organization, Economic development >> DALJIT DHALIWAL: Soaring food prices are making life hard for people everywhere. Now in Mexico many families are taking the fight against the global food crisis into their own hands. Here's our story. >> VOICEOVER: Chaos in Haiti. Protests in Senegal. Turmoil in Somalia. Everywhere, people have been hit by spiraling oil and food prices -- and those most affected are the poor. With high prices and severe drought, a major crisis is brewing in Mexico. Fears are that it will lead to a famine. There are approximately six million people who can barely afford to eat regular meals. Here in the Mixteca region of Mexico, people earn about USD$3 a day. The price of corn, their staple food for thousands of years, has more than doubled, making it now beyond most people's reach. >> ANGELA LOPEZ: It used to be USD$6 for 50 kilos six years ago. Then it went up by one dollar each year. For the past two years, it has been at USD$18. >> VOICEOVER: Angela Lopez and her husband Miguel, live in Tulapa. Their daughter, her husband, and their two children live here too. Since Miguel no longer works, Angela is the only breadwinner. She works part time as a midwife in a nearby hospital and barely makes enough money to buy food for the family. Now the Lopezes are planting a small garden to help feed their family. That too is proving to be a struggle. Water has always been difficult to come by around here. But now the ongoing drought has left the land barren making it more difficult to farm. >> ANGELA LOPEZ: It doesn't rain a lot. Some years, there is nothing to harvest, nothing to produce. Last year, we reaped 50 kilos of corn for the entire harvest. >> VOICEOVER: Fifty kilos will only feed Angela's family for eight days. When it gets tough, she must sell one of her precious goats to buy more corn. The water crisis has prompted the government to step in. With help from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO, cisterns have been installed to help farmers secure enough water to grow the food that they need. Assisting with the project is Jonathan Martinez. >> JONATHAN MARTINEZ: The government has a crucial role to play, and that is to work with the poor in order to eliminate poverty. >> VOICEOVER: Called rain harvesting, it's an efficient way to store water for later use. Another traditional method is being revived. Luis is dowsing. As his ancestors did, he takes a branch and then meticulously checks for ground water. >> LUIS: Water! Bring the machine right here. >> VOICEOVER: He and his group managed to dig deep beneath the earth's surface to tap the water table. The water is channeled to a well by electric pumps. Now, they have enough water to harvest corn all year round. Despite a better harvest, farmers are still hampered by rising prices, forcing many to migrate. Half a million people from this region have left for the United States looking for work. >> JAVIER FLORES: I was so poor; I had nothing in my country. I had no house, no land, nothing. >> VOICEOVER: Javier Flores left when he was 13 years old. >> JAVIER FLORES: There were days we didn't eat nothing. >> VOICEOVER: Now he is back, he has formed a cooperative with his brother and 20 other men to farm the land. But it isn't easy. >> JAVIER FLORES: The fuel is so expensive and everything goes up. Prices are almost unreachable, in a way. It affects us a lot. Most blame rising costs on oil prices and the use of corn for bio-fuels. >> JONATHAN MARTINEZ: Food is for consumption and not for fuel production. The world produces enough provisions for everybody. Let's give people access to the food. >> VOICEOVER: The worldwide dilemma between producing biofuels to save the environment or the production of food to feed people continues. Meanwhile, back at Angela's home, the children entertain the grown-ups. Despite their troubles, she and her family are coping with rising food prices as best they can. Mexicans, like many other people around the world, are faced with serious challenges. Food security is essential for global stability and economic development. >> DALJIT DHALIWAL: Recently, the Mexican government decided to freeze food prices and subsidize the cost of petrol for several months. It blames the rising cost of food on fuel prices and the use of corn for biofuels. That is it for this edition of 21st Century. I'm Daljit Dhaliwal. We will see you next time. Until then, goodbye. >> TITLE: 21st Century a production of United Nations Television Department of Public Information http://www.viewchange.org/videos/unicef-mobile-classrooms-give-pastoral-children-hope-in-uganda <p>Children in northeastern Uganda are expected to help tend their family's cattle, which makes it difficult for them to also receive a formal education. But a new UNICEF-supported mobile education project is helping to bring the classroom closer to the herd.&nbsp;</p> Thu, 03 Jun 2010 00:10:15 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/unicef-mobile-classrooms-give-pastoral-children-hope-in-uganda UNICEF, Uganda, Karamoja, Foreign Assistance, Subsistence farming, Education, Child, Agriculture & Food >> VOICEOVER: A timeless image from the region of Karamoja in northeastern Uganda: children tending to the herd. Cattle and goats are what keep the Karamijong people alive in what can be an unforgiving landscape. Water is scarce, and the harsh environment is not capable of sustaining the masses on crops alone. A new image, one of hope. Children hearing a school bell and scurrying to class, in this case, a UNICEF-supported mobile classroom that allows children here to attend school, while still helping the family look after the animals. Nangiro Lowuya has been raising cattle his entire life, just like his father and grandfather before him. But, after a few lean years, he wants to give his three children options that he never had. >> NANGIRO LOWUYA [father of three students]: School is very important because in the past all we cared about was getting more animals. But now we're in the middle of a crisis. The animals are being stolen, and there's an outbreak of disease. And at the end of it, you might not have anything. Education is the light. A child with an education can get a salary and buy food from the market, even buy a new animal if one dies or is stolen. >> VOICEOVER: He learned about the mobile classroom from Nakut Rose, a community mobilizer who travels around the village informing families about the importance of giving a child a formal education. UNICEF, which supports her efforts, recognizes education as a fundamental right, outlined in the convention on the rights of the child. Not only will classes like this one help children develop to their full potential, it will give them economic opportunities previously cutoff to their community. Rose is particularly proud of her efforts to get girls in the classroom. >> NAKUT ROSE [community mobilizer]: It's important for a girl to go to school so society won't undermine the girls. They are human beings. Also to get knowledge, so they can have a place in society, just like men. A man can serve the family, and a woman can also serve the family at the same time. >> VOICEOVER: There are many reasons to provide a free, basic education to children. Education enhances lives, and it helps end generational cycles of poverty and disease. But, at its core, education is a fundamental human right, which should be extended to all children, girls and boys, regardless of where they live. This is Thomas Nybo reporting for UNICEF Television in Moroto, Uganda. Unite for children. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/unia_0906 <p>This landlocked Himalayan kingdom is finding innovative ways to create sustainable progress without sacrificing centuries of tradition and the country's unique culture.&nbsp;</p> Fri, 28 May 2010 21:50:39 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/unia_0906 Bhutan, Gross national happiness, United Nations, United Nations Development Programme, Subsistence farming, Sustainable development, Organic farming, Agriculture, Organic certification, UN in Action >> VOICEOVER: Bhutan, a landlocked kingdom secluded in the Himalayas, is now at a crossroads. It needs development, but it also wants to preserve its national heritage. Today, Thimphu, the capital, remains largely untouched by foreign influence. Its architecture is predominantly Bhutanese. National clothes are the standard fashion. There are no fast food outlets or other Western franchise chains. But, with a growing young population desiring a better life, can the country progress without sacrificing centuries of tradition? One answer may lie in promoting the kingdom's organic industry. The Ministry of Agriculture, supported by the UN Development Programme, UNDP, is looking into expanding organic farming. Kesang Tshomo is the Coordinator for the organic program. >> KESANG TSHOMO: Because our country is basically mostly natural, and very little disturbance has been done with our farming ... because our farming area is only about 8 percent of the country, we have still a lot of potential that can be capitalized in [the] organic area. >> VOICEOVER: Bhutan's current largest industry is the export of hydroelectric power. Based mainly on run-of-the-river schemes, it already provides nearly half of the kingdom's revenues. Another industry, tourism, is growing. But the government is not keen to encourage it. More than just economic growth, it wants progress that promotes a holistic development of the people. The concept, advocated by the King, his Majesty Jigme Singye Wangchuck, is called "Gross National Happiness." United Nations Resident Coordinator in Bhutan, Renata Dessalien explains. >> RENATA DESSALIEN: His fundamental idea was that development has to be about more than gross national product. People are not just economic animals, they are social animals, they're religious animals, they're cultural animals. And the development plan has to cater to all these various dimensions of a person. >> VOICEOVER: Subsistence farmers make up over three quarters of Bhutan's 700,000 population. Their crops are free of pesticides and other chemicals. By raising exports for the world's growing organic market, the government hopes to increase farmers' incomes while allowing them to continue living their traditional lives. In 2003, the Ministry of Agriculture began identifying products for export. The criteria is high value, low volume. One particular mushroom variety fits exceptionally well into this category. Deidre Boyd from UNDP. >> DEIDRE BOYD: The matsutake mushroom actually gains high prices on the international market that outweigh the logistics costs and the transport costs that Bhutan has to bear as a landlocked country. >> VOICEOVER: Known for its high nutritional value, some say it also has special aphrodisiac powers. A single stem of matsutake mushroom can sell for as high as USD$100 or more in Japan and Singapore. In pursuing sustainable development, Bhutan faces many challenges, from raising exports to tackling the complex rules of organic certification. But one of the toughest issues remains the effort to maintain its unique traditions in today's increasingly globalized world. This report was prepared by Patricia Chan for the United Nations. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/seeds-of-hope-south-africa <p>Food security is a pressing issue for millions of people worldwide. But one South African project demonstrates that, with a little guidance, local people can often produce their own food in a healthy, environmentally sound way, with additional benefits like economic growth and empowerment of the community.</p> Tue, 18 May 2010 18:02:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/seeds-of-hope-south-africa Food security, Developing country, Subsistence farming, South Africa, Agriculture & Food, International Food Policy Research Institute, Malnutrition, International Women's Day, LinkTV Picks >> TITLE: Seeds of Hope: Feeding the World One Community at a Time >> VOICEOVER: Food security means access to sufficient food to lead a healthy and productive life -- at all times, by all people. >> RAJUL PANDYA-LORCH [Head, 2020 Vision Initiative, International Food Policy Research Institute]: The food security situation today is relatively bleak, in that almost 800 million people in the developing world don't have enough food to eat on a daily basis >> VOICEOVER: Most people who are food insecure live in the developing world, in poor rural villages that fall outside of the global market. Often they do not have the money to purchase food from outside sources, yet they also lack the skills and resources to grow their own food. While there are many possible solutions to the problem of food insecurity, the community-based approach has been particularly successful. Using this approach, communities are producing their own food locally, in a healthy, environmentally sound way, with additional benefits like economic growth and empowerment of the community. >> JULES PRETTY [Professor of Environment and Society, University of Essex]: Within communities, there are solutions that exist. Maybe people didn't realize they existed, and they need to be brought out, drawn out of systems. People have the wherewithal to transform themselves and their communities and there's very good evidence that shows that food insecurity can really be dealt a blow to end it. We just have to realize that those possibilities are there. >> TITLE: Hlatlolanang Primary Health Center, Limpopo Province, South Africa >> VOICEOVER: In rural South Africa, in the northern province of Limpopo, children were dying from hunger and malnutrition. One mother whose child had been hospitalized several times with severe malnutrition was desperate for a solution. She lacked the necessary knowledge and resources to grow her own food, so she turned to the Wits School of Public Health for help. >> ROSELYN MAZIBUKO [Director, Health Promotion Division, Wits School of Public Health]: The women asked me to go and assist them to stop their children from dying. So the project that we established with the women was called Hlatlolanang Health and Nutrition Education Center. What we did was to make deep-trench gardens. >> VOICEOVER: Deep-trench gardening is a simple process. A four-by-eight-foot trench is dug to a depth of a few feet, then filled with fertile soil. When the project began, 10 women in the village came together to learn the technique. Armed with knowledge, they were able to produce enough food to drastically improve the health of their children. >> ROSELYN MAZIBUKO: Only four door-sized trench gardens, prepared a month apart each, would be able to provide fresh vegetables the whole year through. >> VOICEOVER: The women would work in groups and would rotate together from one house to the next. >> ROSELYN MAZIBUKO: You work on a Monday in one home and you dig a two-spade length by one-spade length type of trench garden, and then you go to the well to fetch water together. By the time the week ends, the seedlings are appearing on the garden of the one woman. >> VOICEOVER: The women also learned other creative strategies to garden organically, using very little outside resources. >> ROSELYN MAZIBUKO: We used nothing that we actually bought from the market, like manure, like pesticides. The women used the natural resources that they had. >> VOICEOVER: The success of the initial village became known in the province and the women helped to establish similar groups in 43 other villages. >> ROSELYN MAZIBUKO: I don't know how to explain the whole impact that this has had. It has not only managed to address the problem of starvation, it has also united the people. Some of the signs of success are not tangible ones, but when you actually see the women and the children, and you see that the child who used to cry with a very low cry and dry, and suddenly when you sing, because we sing and dance in the villages ... when you sing and dance and you see this child also singing and shaking, then you actually are very happy. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/knowing-how-to-nurture-ourselves <p>Stephan Fayon, director of an international seed bank in Auroville, India, explains how preserving the diversity of seeds insures against the breakdown of large-scale industrial agriculture. Today the supermarkets in the developed world are full -- but if unsustainable systems of agriculture collapse, will we know how to nourish ourselves?&nbsp;</p> Fri, 26 Mar 2010 18:49:14 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/knowing-how-to-nurture-ourselves Seed saving, Agriculture, Sustainable agriculture, Food security, Seed, Kokopelli Seed Foundation, Seedbank, Environment, Organic farming, India >> TITLE: Global Oneness Project >> TITLE: Knowing How to Nurture Ourselves >> TITLE: Annadana Seed Bank, Auroville, India >> STEPHAN FAYON: My name is Stephan. I work in environment since the last 12 years and specifically I'm related to an international organization [Kokopelli India] which is engaged in seed saving. We save all the ancient varieties of vegetables, pulses, millets, wheats, which are disappearing because of the modern trend of agriculture, which is toward hybrids and genetically modified organisms. So we get, from everywhere on the planet, all these ancient varieties, conserve them, grow them again, and make them again available in networks of farmers everywhere. >> STEPHAN FAYON: So here is a seed bank, mainly for vegetables. So we have all sorts of tomatoes, of sugar beet, of corns, of all ancient varieties, traditional varieties. So we bring them here and then we screen them, we look at their yields, how they perform in these types of conditions, and then I'll select like six, seven, eight which become part of our collection; we try a different station in a different place in India, and then we bring them back to the farmers, basically. So this center, the whole place is run with solar, solar energy. We have a seed-drying area, where we extract and dry and ferment, when necessary, all sorts of seeds. Then we have the last space there where we put the seeds in packets. So this is where we conserve our seeds, make packets out of them, and start to send them from here to different places. So this year with the harvest, we may have about 30,000 to 40,000 seed packets that we're going to be able to send in India. >> STEPHAN FAYON: For me, actually, my work before me are the seeds. Seeds are very symbolic anyway, in any civilization, in our talk; "seed," it's a symbolic word. But here we really work on the seed; it's not on the symbol but on the real thing. It's funny how we have forgotten the essentials nowadays. Because we get our food from the supermarket, we don't have to think about it. But it's crucial, because at the moment the farmers everywhere on the planet have lost their resources. The seeds are coming from companies far away. And if the truck doesn't bring them or if the department, you know ... they don't have seeds. And without seeds there is no agriculture. Without agriculture there is no civilization. So what we are trying to do is conserve all these seeds and send them back to people who can, who are feeding the environment so that they can preserve it and become independent. >> STEPHAN FAYON: So, for me -- to get back to that really basic thing, which is knowing how to nurture ourselves, how to cultivate our land without poisoning it -- so, for me, this is building the future. Because that system is going to collapse sooner or later. Because the actual type of agriculture is based on hydrocarbon, no? With cars, with tractors, with fertilizer. So if that happens or if global warming happens, we are going to be in a situation where this thing that we have disregarded so far, food, because there is plenty of food in the supermarket, is going to be scarce, you know? And basically I think we're going to have to get down to that basic thing: knowing again how to nurture ourselves. So this is how I link this seed saving, organic agriculture, sustainable agriculture, sustainable living with our future. Because I'm afraid that within a certain number of years we're going to be faced by a really cruel reality. >> TITLE: www.globalonenessproject.org