Citizen Diplomacy Action Fund (CDAF) Community Engagement
In 2014-2015, I had the opportunity to live and work in Germany for a year as a participant in the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange for Young Professionals Program. This experience was transformative, laying the groundwork for my professional career in agroecology and providing me with the opportunity to engage with future Department of State grant and fellowship opportunities. One such opportunity was the Citizen Diplomacy Action Fund, a program that was designed " to address key foreign policy goals by empowering U.S. citizen alumni of U.S. government sponsored exchange programs (ExchangeAlumni) to support their communities through policy-inspired projects."
As such, with my Penn State colleague and friend, Andrew Blunk, we designed a project to focus on supporting communities in developing the tools to directly confront the effects of climate change. Find a brief description and photos of our project below as well on this blog post by Andy and be sure to check out the website of our collaborators, 'The Soil Solution', an NGO based on the ground in The Gambia that was instrumental in carrying this project out.
As such, with my Penn State colleague and friend, Andrew Blunk, we designed a project to focus on supporting communities in developing the tools to directly confront the effects of climate change. Find a brief description and photos of our project below as well on this blog post by Andy and be sure to check out the website of our collaborators, 'The Soil Solution', an NGO based on the ground in The Gambia that was instrumental in carrying this project out.
Using Community on-Farm Research Projects to Educate and Empower Farming Communities will coordinate an on-site, farmer-led research project to investigate how local natural resources (oyster shells) can be used to address acidic soils in The Gambia, empower an agricultural community to develop the tools needed to combat the effects of climate change, and support the development of a circular economy between farmers and oyster harvesters. Through a series of trainings and workshops on topics including on experimental research design; soil, plant and pest soil collection; simple data interpretation; and general pH management techniques, farmers will develop a simple research project to improve soil health and improve crop yields, and deliver a presentation of their findings