Work

 

Mr. Houmphan Sengchanthong is a community developer. Working in 25 different villages, he teaches the people natural agriculture techniques. He organizes monthly meetings in which he works with the farmers to set up a monthly plan in coordination with Provincial counterparts. He is always careful in his work to listen to the voice and concerns of his people. These villages are very remote, but, these communities are close knit and help each other with things like rice transplanting, building houses, and funeral services. “The community is rich in natural resources and villagers and forests depend on each other. It is worrying now because the natural resources are decreasing sharply because outside sectors such as companies, factories, and land concessions are taking the land and harvesting the trees, sometimes illegally.”

 

Mr. Sengchanthong is looking forward to bolstering his leadership skills at ARI. He wants to be better at motivating the villagers to participate in new activities and tasks. Currently, “advising the villagers in new concepts is sometimes difficult. It takes time and we have to do it carefully to encourage them to accept our concepts. For example, villagers want to see outcomes visually and if something goes wrong, they might not trust us again. With ARI training I will have the experience of doing these things and the confidence to lead the people.”

 

Sending Organization

 

The Japanese Volunteer Center (JVC) is an NGO that has been working in the Khammouane Province of Laos for almost 20 years. JVC focuses on community forestry and integrated agriculture. Current projects include: Increasing rice yield by applying SRI techniques; helping villagers to have access to clean water in the dry season by providing materials to dig wells; supporting the villagers with fruit tree seedlings including fruit tree propagation training; teaching techniques for making organic fertilizer. Community Forestry is one of the main projects of JVC. Deforestation is beginning to threaten the livelihoods of rural communities. JVC establishes village forest areas in close association with government institutions. This gives communities legal recognition over their forest lands and allows them to continue to utilize their forest resources.