Africa visit a ‘relationship-building’ boost for SAID team
- kirranicolle
- 7 minutes ago
- 3 min read
The Salvation Army’s Bruce Edwards travelled to East Africa earlier this year to personally meet participants in a Salvation Army International Development (SAID) project. He spoke with Salvos Online journalist KIRRALEE NICOLLE about his experiences there.
Bruce is a Project Coordinator for the SAID team. He told Kirralee Nicolle that seeing firsthand the impact of projects implemented by the Australia Territory’s international development team in Kenya and Tanzania was very encouraging.
Bruce visited two projects in May: one in Tanzania (the Sustainable Agriculture and Livestock Production project), and in Kenya West (Agriculture for Community Empowerment project).
He spent a week in each country, discussing project plans with local leaders and farmers. He said the goal was mainly to run inception workshops for new phases of projects.
During the workshops the project implementation plan was reviewed with each project team by SAID’s Project Effectiveness Coordinator, Peter Squires, and an external consultant, so that a monitoring and evaluation plan could be developed for effective reporting.
Bruce said it was always great to be on the ground and seeing firsthand the work that was being done, its outcomes and meeting the team.
“It actually makes the rest of our work much easier when you’re meeting over (Microsoft) Teams or sending emails with people – once you’ve had that kind of relationship-building experience, it improves the flow of that work,” he said.
Bruce also got to visit projects and participants in both countries. He said the projects were focused on working with smallholder farms, where often female-headed households manage small acreages.
The Salvation Army supports them with training around sustainable agriculture practices, livestock care and breeding, agro-ecology and climate-smart agriculture practices, and assessing climate change impacts in the region. The project also facilitates connections for farmers with relevant government services, private enterprise, and access to broader market chains.
The projects also include a Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA), which is a local share purchasing scheme for farmers which allows shareholders to obtain loans based on their shareholdings. This scheme has had life-changing results.
“Farmers use those loans to purchase equipment,” Bruce said. “One farmer used it to dig a well on his property. Now he no longer has to go 17 kilometres on a bike to a river with jerry cans to collect [household] water.”
Bruce said participants told of being able to afford more food for their households and school uniforms for their children, and one woman said she had been able to increase her giving to her local corps.
In Kenya, Bruce met Beadrice, one of the participants of the first phase of the Agriculture for Community Empowerment project. When she applied the new farming methods from the conservation agriculture trainings she attended, Beadrice said she saw a substantial increase in yield from her crops. The increased income and produce had improved her own family’s food security and financial capacity.
Having experienced the benefits firsthand, Beadrice had begun passing on the new farming methods to family and other community members. Her enthusiasm to share her learning and its benefits with others had earned her the nickname locally ‘Professor of Conservation Agriculture’.
One of the Tanzanian farmers Bruce met, Ahadi, was featured in this year’s Self-Denial video campaign.
Bruce said it was very encouraging to meet him in person and be able to verify the impact of The Salvation Army’s support for farmers in Ahadi’s position.
“It was a good representation of what the outcomes of the project actually are, and that we contribute to that with our resources and with the work that our team does in supporting the local project implementation team.”
To find out more about SAID and Self Denial, click here.
