Youth Ambassadors head to ACIAR projects

Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development Anthony Robinson (WA), Marissa Skeels (WA), Nicola Edwards (NSW) and Joshua Philp (NSW), at a reception at Old Parliament House Canberra.

Four Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development (AYADs) will leave Australia in April 2010 to spend up to 12 months working on ACIAR projects.

They are part of a contingent of 141 AYADs who are travelling to various countries in Asia, the Pacific, and for the first time, Africa.

Marissa Skeels, of Western Australia, will spend 12 months based in Quy Nhon, a coastal city in south central Vietnam working on an ACIAR project helping farmers in the dry and infertile region become more productive.

The project involves integrating crop and beef cattle farming systems, improving the use of soil and water for tree crops, and linking farmer to markets. Marissa will evaluate the project components and pass on what she knows about evaluation to the Vietnamese team members.

Anthony Robinson, also from WA, will spend 12 months in Samoa working on an ACIAR project helping farmers to control diamond back moth in Brassica crops through integrated pest management.

Anthony has a degree in National Resource Management, and has held a number of roles, most recently assessing the biosecurity threats to bee pollination. He will share his knowledge on effective insecticides use with Samoan and Fijian farmers.

Nicola Edwards, of NSW, will spend 9 months based in Makassar, on the eastern Indonesia island of Sulawesi. She is working on an ACIAR project helping smallholder coffee growers boost their incomes by meeting the standards of the international coffee market.

Nicola speaks Indonesian, has a degree in Indonesian studies and did her honours thesis on the movement towards sustainable agriculture in Indonesia. She will work with producer organisations in the Toraja and Enrekang regions of Sulawesi.

Joshua Philp, of NSW, is to spend 9 months in Gansu on the Loess Plateau in central China working on an ACIAR project which is improving the livelihood of farmers by developing more efficient crop-livestock farming systems.

Joshua has a Bachelor of Animal Science from the University of Western Sydney, and is looking forward to the opportunity to apply his knowledge of systems-based research in China.

Returned AYADS opt to stay in the field

Sally Bolton has just completed 12 months as communications officer with ‘Seeds of Life’ in East Timor. This food security program is helping raise crop yields by introducing improved varieties of staple food crops.

Sally worked on a wide range of communications activities including writing, graphic design, web design, media liaison and photography. The Seeds of Life team say Sally developed a great web page and did a fantastic job developing their communications strategy.

She now heads to Mexico to work with microfinance organisation CrediComun through the Kiva Fellows program until August, but is very keen to return to Timor-Leste.

Tim Heath worked as an agronomist on an ACIAR project in Tibet as an AYAD in 2009. He is soon to return to Tibet to continue work on the project helping local farmers and agricultural institutes overcome the shortfalls livestock fodder and grains production.

Tim grew up on a broad acre farming property west of Port Lincoln in South Australia, and studied agriculture before working as an agronomist. He has expertise in weed control, which has a big impact on food production in Australia and Tibet.

Tim is now an AYAD state representative for South Australia and a strong advocate of the opportunities the program offers.

Communications specialist sought, Nairobi

Applications are sought for a communication specialist to spend 12 months at the Biosciences Eastern and Central Africa-International Livestock Research Institute (BecA-ILRI) Hub in Nairobi, Kenya from July/Aug 2010.

The Crawford Fund is seeking applicants through the Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development Program by 8 May. For further information contact Cathy Reade on creade [at] squirrel [dot] com [dot] au

Links:

Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development: http://www.ayad.com.au/