Editorial - From words to reality
Anne-Marie Foged, Board member- responsible for PR
Published 13th of September 2007
As a member of ADDA's board, you read several reports. When you administrate a large amount of public funding through DANIDA - ADDA's yearly turnover is at the moment 5-6 million DKK - you must be able to substantiate that the funds are used according to the aim, and that the planned results will be achieved after the estimated time schedule. We have competent staff working on the projects, both sent out and local, so there has never been basis for critical audit remarks.. But one thing is to read about something that works well, and another is to see it for yourself. I was very fortunate to have the possibility of visiting ADDA's three current projects in March/April. I visited several field schools (FFS) in Cambodia and self-help groups in the IWEP project, which has the aim to improve the living conditions of women farmers. In Vietnam I saw how the organic farming project has now completed the preparatory stages with field studies of various crops and farming methods and how the involved farmers are now ready for organic production and to establish a market for their crops.. On a long trip to the North-West part of the country, I saw several field schools in the third project - the Song-Da project - which has the aim to develop the ethnic minorities' local societies. The first local instructors have completed their training at the schools of agriculture and have started their teaching in the many field schools in the villages.
I have met committed people in all these villages, who have said yes to participating in one of ADDA's projects, and knowing all too well that it will mean extra work and new things to learn, and no promise of ready earnings here and now, but the assurance that ADDA's methods will in the long run give rise to increased earnings and better living conditions. What I noticed especially through meeting all these people, who in the economic sense are very poor, but who are rich in capability and drive, is the difference with regard to an individual's self-perception and self-respect, is that he/she has knowledge and choice of action. ADDA's projects are founded on the special teaching concept (IPM) developed by FAO (refer to the article in this newsletter), which is based on the theory that you best learn something new by doing it yourself in practice throughout the whole process, and that you become stronger both as a group and as an individual by collaborating with equals. This method is completely low-tech in contrast to so many other development projects, and the help that is offered is not economical, but consists of knowledge. Help to self-help can sound like a hackneyed phrase, but it describes 100% what ADDA can offer to poor farmers in developing countries. It was a great experience that you could clearly see from the instructors and the farmers who had received training, that they had straightend up and believed in a better future. You could literally see it in their eyes, and I couldn't help thinking about the mobilisation of Danish farmers that happened through the co-operative movement and "Højskoler" in the previous century where education and cohesiveness gave rise to our rich society.
In contrast to tractors that rust away, and cement plants that do not run, knowledge and education do not rust and have a long life, so reports with their dry figures describe a reality that fully lives up to ADDA's objectives and members' dreams about helping to make a difference.
 Visit to field school: Nam Lo Ong: the two instructors Oanh and Giao and two pupils from the class with Anne-Marie Foged from the Board. The class has participants from the two ethnic minorities Dai and Hmong, and all teaching is conducted in two languages.
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 The participants in the organic study project discuss the possibility of selling their products to the Danish tour operator Topas' Ecolodge, which is nearby.
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