President’s Message - Fall 2024
As I sit down to write this update and look out at the changing foliage, I realize that as in nature, much has happened at Farmers Helping Farmers over the past 5 months! These are indeed exciting times as we continue to make progress on the Gender Responsive One Health Project (GROH) in partnership with Alinea.
The project has moved beyond the planning phase into implementation. Since the spring, we have transferred 5 staff that had previously worked on the More Food Better Food Project to GROH. We have also hired a Gender and Health Specialist and a Finance and Administration Support individual in Kenya and a part-time finance support individual in Canada.
Our staff have been actively involved in dairy farm training, as well as training in poultry – egg production, human nutrition, and paravet education. The staff have also developed a plan to link business entrepreneurship with poultry egg production and tree nursery initiatives.
This project has also allowed us to update our asset base in Kenya with new motorbikes and phones for our staff and for the first time, we have an office / lab facility for Kenyan staff and Canada-based volunteers to use while in Kenya.
Through the generous support of the Pindoff Foundation, we have been able to secure funding for three years to upgrade gardens at the schools we support in Kenya. Amongst other things, this will allow us to replace the screen houses with more robust structures that will withstand both pests and weather.
As busy as it has been in Kenya, it has been busy in Canada as well. The Farmers Helping Farmers Annual General Meeting was held at the Farm Centre in July and as usual was preceded by a delicious meal.
In early August, the sold out FHF barbecue was again held at the North Shore Community Centre in Covehead. Three hundred tickets were sold, providing a welcome boost to our fund-raising efforts. A big thank-you to all the volunteers who made the barbecue a major success and to all who bought tickets.
In July, the Village Feast was held in Souris. The Village Feast has been a major contributor to FHF over the years and has funded the construction of 17 cookhouses. The Feast has also paid for the ongoing cost of gardeners at each school. These generous contributions allow us to feed 6,000 school children each and every school day!
Emily Wells continues to be a major supporter of the Farmers Helping Farmers Education Committee with her Fall Harvest Suppers at The Mill Restaurant in New Glasgow PEI. The event was held on the Thanksgiving weekend and was a huge success. A big thank-you to Emily for all her hard work on behalf of the school children we serve in Kenya.
The 2024 Holiday Campaign is underway, and you will find a copy of this year’s brochure elsewhere in the newsletter. The Holiday Campaign is an important part of our fund-raising efforts. It allows us to continue to support those areas that are not covered by funding from major projects such as GROH. Without funding from the Holiday Campaign, we would be required to shut down some of these programs which would have a profound impact on the families who depend on us.
I know it is early and the leaves are still on the trees, however, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your support over the past years and to wish you and your family Season’s Greetings and a Merry Christmas. Please remember the people of Kenya this Christmas Season and if you can, please contribute to the Holiday Campaign.
Ron Herbert
President
President’s Message – Spring 2024
By Ron Herbert, FHF President
April 2024
Spring is slowly arriving in P.E.I. but things are anything but slow with Farmers Helping Farmers.
Since I last wrote, we have been extremely busy preparing for a new project funded by Global Affairs Canada. This four year project entitled “Gender Responsive One Health” (GROH) will see Farmers Helping Farmers partnered with Alinea, a private company with many years of experience delivering development around the world. This arrangement of partnering with another Canadian organization is new to Farmers Helping Farmers and we look forward to working with and learning from them. The project is focused on Kenya and Ethiopia, with Farmers Helping Farmers having responsibility for Kenya.
The focus of the GROH project is to increase awareness of diseases that can be spread from animals to humans and to educate people on how to avoid this spread. We will continue to work with our community partners in Meru County, and will over time expand to add new partners.
I am pleased to announce that Colleen Walton has been hired as Project Manager for GROH. Based in Canada, Colleen will be responsible for the day- to -day operation of the Project. Colleen brings much expertise to this role. She is a past president of Farmers Helping Farmers, has travelled to Kenya many times over the years and focused her PHD research on Kenya. Colleen will be a real asset to the organization in this role.
During the late autumn and early winter, we had volunteers in Kenya working with our staff and partners to determine how we could capitalize on Farmers Helping Farmers networks and the skills of our staff to move forward with this exciting and important GROH project.
As one project scales up another scales down. The More Food, Better Food Project that has been the focus of our efforts over the past four years has come to an end. We are preparing our final reports to Global Affairs Canada as the project wraps up. We have been extremely fortunate to work with Global Affairs Canada, and to receive considerable funding for the work that we do, and the benefits we bring to the people of Meru County.
The needs of the families are ongoing, and it is through working with funders like Global Affairs Canada that we can leverage every dollar donated to Farmers Helping Farmers by people like you.
We had a sizable group of volunteers in Kenya in January and early February working with farm families and schools. It goes without saying that the commitment of these volunteers both in time and their own financial resources is so important and so appreciated.
The Board and Committees have been focused over the winter on the start-up efforts for the Gender Responsive One Health Project. As this project enters the operational stage, the Board is switching its focus back to some of the in-Canada aspects of our operation.
The date for the Annual General Meeting of Farmers Helping Farmers has been set for Thursday July 18th at the Farm Centre. The meeting will start with a dinner and proceed to the business of the organization. Please mark that date in your calendar.
As well, the annual Souris Village Feast is scheduled for July 7, 2024 at the Souris Regional High School grounds. The Village Feast is a big contributor to Farmers Helping Farmers having built seventeen cook houses and supporting school gardens in Kenya over the years. Please support this worthwhile community event and in the process support the children of Meru county.
The Farmers Helping Farmers Barbeque will be back again this year on August 10 th at the North Shore Community Centre in Covehead. Please come and enjoy a wonderful steak dinner, socialize with your friends and support the important work of Farmers Helping Farmers.
Thank you for your continuing support through donations, volunteering and spreading the word on the good work that Farmers Helping Farmers does.
Have a great summer and I hope to see you at the AGM or one of the fund-raising events.
Ron Herbert
President, Farmers Helping Farmers
President’s Message – Fall 2023
Greetings! My name is Ron Herbert and I am the new President of Farmers Helping Farmers. For those of you who don’t know me, I am a retired Chartered Accountant and federal public servant and have been involved with Farmers Helping Farmers since 2012. I originally maintained the financial records for the organization and subsequently joined the board and chaired the finance committee. I travelled to Kenya in 2014 and provided training on financial literacy for the boards of the local dairy co-ops.
Farmers helping Farmers has been extremely fortunate to have received funding over the past four years from Global Affairs Canada for a Project entitled “More Food, Better Food” that has allowed us to help many families in Kenya to increase their knowledge of farming practices, and by so doing increase their capacity to feed their families and to increase their income from their farms. This project will be completed by March 31, 2024.

We received word in late August that a new Partnership Project involving Farmers Helping Farmers, Alinea, the Atlantic Veterinary College and several other vets schools from across Canada has been approved by Global Affairs. This Project entitled “Gender Responsive One Health” will permit Farmers Helping Farmers to continue the great work we do with the people of Meru County in Kenya over a period of 3 ½ years. It is our hope that this project will be up and running by late this fiscal year.

After an absence of three years due to COVID, the FHF Beef Barbeque made a reappearance in August in a new location but with the same great food and smiling faces. Because of the new location the number of tickets available was reduced from 750 to 300. We were pleased to see that tickets were sold out a week before the barbeque, and with the revised pricing we were able to generate almost as much revenue. Thank you to everyone who bought tickets, donated products or volunteered their time to make the barbeque such a success.

After a three-year hiatus, The Village Feast in Souris made a comeback in July and committed to continue funding school gardens in Kenya for another year. We are extremely grateful to the Village Feast for their ongoing support of Farmers Helping Farmers.
Emily Wells once again opened her restaurant to Farmers Helping Farmers over the Thanksgiving weekend. As she has for so many years, Emily donated the proceeds from the weekend to FHF and the work that we do with the schools in Kenya. A big thank you to Emily and everyone who bought tickets.
The 2023 Holiday Campaign is underway, and you will find a copy of this year’s brochure elsewhere in the newsletter. The Holiday Campaign is one of our largest sources of revenue, outside of funding from Global Affairs. It provides much needed funding to address the many needs we attempt to address in Kenya.

Although it is early, I would like to take the opportunity to wish each of you Season’s Greetings and Merry Christmas. Please remember the people of Kenya this holiday season and if you can, make a contribution to our Holiday Campaign.
Ron Herbert, President
President’s Message – Spring 2023
By FHF President Judy Loo
Spring has arrived on PEI and rains have arrived in Kenya. Farmers Helping Farmers members, staff and participants are feeling relieved and hopeful on both sides of the ocean. Fields that were dry and barren last fall and winter are green and productive today, even in Nkando and other heavily drought-affected areas in Meru County. So if luck holds until harvest time, many of the families that we work with through women’s groups and schools, should have enough food for the next few months.
We continue to support them and to expand our reach by including new schools and adding women’s groups when funds allow.

We are coming to the end of our Global Affairs funded project, “More Food, Better Food”, and though we remain hopeful, we have yet to receive new federal funding, so in spite of the hope inspired by rain-fed crops, we are anxious about maintaining our momentum. During the winter and early spring, conditions were so dire for some of the participating women’s groups and schools that we provided more direct aid than we have in the past, ensuring that schools had nutritious food for lunch programs and that household coffers did not completely run out.
Such direct “non-project” aid depletes our non-designated funds, but it was clearly necessary, and thanks to generous supporters, we were able to help alleviate hunger at their time of need. Global Affairs staff are clearly impressed by FHF’s accomplishments that they have funded. They sent several delegates to Meru County to see for themselves the difference that FHF is making in the lives of the rural poor and we are hopeful that their favourable impressions will increase the likelihood of substantial renewed funding.

On PEI, the board, committees and other volunteers have been very active during the past few months organizing travel to Kenya, completing funding proposals, confirming priorities in the new strategic plan and planning upcoming events. Several volunteers have spent time in Kenya or will soon be travelling there. In addition to the small reconnaissance group in November, a larger group of volunteers spent three weeks there in January; a solo volunteer spent two weeks in March working on school gardens and another group of volunteers, including students, will travel there in May, some to stay for three months. In a very real sense, we are feeling reconnected and reinvigorated by direct and meaningful contact with the Meru County participants in our work.
Many of us are farmers and our lives become busier in the summer months, but two upcoming events will bring us together, so stay tuned. The Annual General Meeting will be on July 20th , with reports, awards, dinner and a chance to connect with board and committee members as well as other FHF members at large. The summer FHF barbeque is returning this year, scheduled for August 12th , with a different format but the usual great food and camaraderie.

Thank you for your continuing support through monetary donations, volunteering in various ways and spreading the word. Although it is raining this week in Kenya, the climate is still changing and increased drought frequency is with us to stay. Our friends in Meru County still need our support in building climate resilience, food security and grassroots empowerment.
President’s Message – Fall 2022
By FHF President Judy Loo

The big news this fall is the weather. Extreme conditions both in Kenya and on P.E.I. are challenging everyday life, and changing the way that we think about the future. On P.E.I., two weeks after the
strongest hurricane ever recorded here, many people are still without electricity, as we survey the mess of trees and branches obstructing driveways and resting on homes.
In Kenya, people are hungry amidst the worst drought in decades. Children are too hungry to learn, and in many cases, mothers are limiting themselves to one meal a day. It is painfully apparent in both locations that climate change is not just a concern for the future; it has arrived, bringing with it uncertainty, and fear for food security, livelihoods, and homes.

Farmers Helping Farmers cannot change the weather, or address the most serious impacts of the changing climate. But all the supports that we have been providing over the years continue to help women and families cope with the extreme drought in Kenya. For example, the water tanks can be filled, allowing irrigation of gardens. Grow bags can provide greens for a family when water is available, feeding programs in schools are preventing serious malnutrition.

With the help of our staff on the ground in Meru County, we continue to monitor the situation and provide direct assistance to those who are hardest hit, where possible. Our work with women’s groups, dairies and schools has perhaps never been more important than it is now. It is heartbreaking though, to see the drought undermining the progress that people have made, and we know that much more needs to be done.

Our current project, supported by Global Affairs, helps families become more resilient in the face of climate change impacts, and ideas for future projects include even more of a focus on adapting to climate change, within the overarching themes of food security and women’s empowerment.
At the global level, attaining the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has been made more difficult by the East African drought. Many of the SDGs require a simultaneous focus on climate impacts, as indicators of well-being are increasingly affected by climate extremes.

Our work in Meru County has incorporated a climate focus, and contributes to several of the SDGs. These include reducing poverty and hunger, improving health and well-being, promoting quality education, empowering women and ensuring availability of water. As we develop new project ideas, we will ensure that our work continues to contribute to the SDGs.
We are pleased that travel to Kenya is resuming with two visits planned; a small delegation in November with a reconnaissance role, and a larger working group of volunteers in January. Watch for updates on Facebook and on our FHF website.

President’s Message – Spring 2022
By FHF President Judy Loo
As spring arrives on PEI with all of the colours of optimism and hope, there is reason to be optimistic for Farmers Helping Farmers and for our partners in Kenya. We continue to receive great support from individuals and organizations, including another major unsolicited donation from the Pindoff Foundation. Our wonderful team in Kenya continues to inspire us with their dedication and creativity through trying times.
In Kenya, farmers anxiously wait for rain but many who are connected with women’s groups, supported currently or previously by FHF, are equipped to make the most of whatever rain falls. FHF has supplied many households with water tanks, grow bags, seeds, solar lights, stoves and other items to improve time and resource efficiency and to assist in the slow climb from poverty. Many school children also continue to benefit from the cookhouses and gardens established and supported by FHF. Work continues as well with the dairies that partner with FHF, delivering training and other supports.

Our reach may soon increase to include more women farmers in drier areas of Meru County, Kenya, if we are successful with funding applications. We are developing a concept note for Global Affairs Canada on adaptation to climate change by women farmers, as well as partnering in another recently submitted concept note for funding under GAC’s One Health initiative. Although we cannot expect success with every application, we know that GAC continues to be interested in our approaches and capabilities as we progress through the current GAC-supported project, receiving positive feedback and encouragement to continue seeking their support.
Thinking about what the future holds for FHF and changes that may require us to adapt, we have embarked on a Strategic Planning process with a committee consisting of a mixture of long-time and new Island-based members and three long term Kenyan staff. The process is ably facilitated through morning Zoom meetings twice each month. The committee’s work is building on the survey, interviews and workshop in which many members participated during 2021. Steps in the process to build the 10-year plan include: formulating Vision and Mission statements, conducting a gap analysis to identify where current status or practice differs from the vision and/or mission, developing SMART goals, determining how to monitor the plan, disseminating the draft plan to members and other stakeholders seeking feedback, modifying and finalizing the plan.
The committee aims to complete the draft Strategic Plan by November 1. Stay tuned for opportunities to provide feedback.

President’s Message – Fall 2021
By FHF President Judy Loo
As your new president, I realize that many of you don’t know me so I will begin with a brief introduction. I grew up on PEI on a small mixed farm in Springfield, left the Island for more than 40 years, and returned to the farm a little more than five years ago. While away, my career as a forest scientist took me to British Columbia, Oklahoma, New Brunswick, Mexico and most recently to Rome, where I worked with the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) in research for development. Although my work took me to Kenya various times, I have not yet visited Meru County. I am delighted to be connected now to Farmers Helping Farmers.

The past few months have continued to pose challenges to our work in Kenya, as COVID’s 4th wave has led to renewed or extended restrictions. Both the FHF Annual Beef Barbecue and The Village Feast were cancelled for the second year, impacting our fundraising efforts. Limits on gathering sizes have also affected work in Kenya, particularly training.
Volunteers have still not been able to travel from P.E.I. to Kenya.

In spite of the challenges, our wonderful staff in Kenya have continued to deliver programming. During the late summer and early fall, they have been focusing especially on five new womens’ groups in the impoverished semi-arid region to the north of our original project area. Most of the women there are food-insecure and the needs are great. We are funding water tanks, solar lights, cook stoves, horticultural supplies and support through donations and the Global Affairs Canada project More Food, Better Food.

Here on the Island, we have been working on developing a renewed vision for the future of FHF. We developed a survey asking questions to inform a modified SWOT analysis, and invited many of you to complete it. It is still available if you wish to do so.
We hired a summer student, Ayo Ogunleye, to pull together and organize historical documents, including articles, letters and project reports. He also assisted with interviews of FHF members spanning the four decades since FHF’s inception, and developed a timeline.
All of the information that has been collected is intended as a backdrop to support the Visioning Workshop to be facilitated by Carolyn Francis on November 6. The results of the workshop will inform the development of a strategic plan for the organization.

Finally, we have just held a very successful fundraiser at the Mill in New Glasgow, thanks to the generosity of chef Emily Wells. Our donors and supporters have continued to be extremely generous with their time and funds and, as always, we thank you!
President’s Message – Fall 2020
In the six months since our last newsletter, our world has changed profoundly.
Our hope that COVID-19 would pass fairly soon is changing to a realization that this pandemic will be with us for some time to come.
Here at home, even though PEI has done well and been fortunate so far, we have seen impacts and new stresses in all facets of our lives. In Meru County, Kenya, the coronavirus has also touched fairly lightly to date – but health protection measures and events elsewhere have heavily affected the lives of the Kenyan families with whom we work. Their words, as set out later in this newsletter, tell of impacts, pressures and fears that are often harsher than those we face.
But although much has changed, many important things stay the same.
Our commitment to working with Kenyan farm families has continued, with your support and the work of our Kenyan staff. That commitment has helped those families to stay safer, be more resilient, and live healthier lives. Every one of the supports provided to date – tanks, grow bags, cookstoves, lucerne plots, and solar lamps – has reduced the need for families to leave their farms for water, food, fuel, livestock fodder, and phone charging. These supports have also reduced the need to spend scarce income on those basic needs – critically important at a time when many of the family income earners have lost their paid employment. Cookhouses have been built and school gardens established at the five new project schools, as children return to school during this month.
Our Kenyan staff’s dedication to their work has continued strong, as they shifted their approach from training groups, to working with individual families. As they demonstrated compost-making, helped plant grow bags, delivered cookstoves, seeded demonstration plots of lucerne, and carried out participatory cooking demonstrations and nutrition training, they also provided face masks and health messages to keep those families safer. Recently, as Kenyan restrictions on group meetings eased, our staff have returned to the group training approach.
Our partners in PEI and beyond are also continuing strong, as they find new and creative ways to support and take part in our work. Thanks go to the Souris Village Feast for their online campaign in July in lieu of their annual steak and lobster feast, which raised money towards the wages of school gardeners at the thirteen cookhouses they have built thus far.
Thanks also go to Chef Emily Wells, who transformed her Harvest Luncheons into an equally delicious and acclaimed two-night Harvest Dinner event at the Mill.
In June, we received support from the Charlottetown Rotary Club to begin buying cookstoves for project families, and in July, we were surprised and heartened to receive an unexpected and significant donation from the Pindoff Family Foundation of Toronto in support of our More Food, Better Food project.
In our schools, in the midst of all the new challenges they face, twinning teachers are searching for new ways to maintain letter exchanges and contact with our twinned schools. The recently launched book Broken Crayons by long-time FHF member Patsy Dingwell tells a heartwarming story of generosity and sharing by the Kenyan students, reminding us why we do what we do. And our appreciation also goes to Global Affairs Canada for their responsiveness and flexibility as we worked to adapt our project plan and funding to the new environment we face.
Lastly, we are deeply grateful to our community of friends. Last year, our Holiday Campaign raised record funds, and this year, despite the difficult times, I hope for your continued support for our annual Holiday Campaign, which begins shortly.
With the need to cancel our annual Barbecue, the Holiday Campaign is more critical to our work than ever. New items eligible for matching include reusable sealed bags for safe storage of maize and beans, and fuel-efficient vented cookstoves.
Your donations are essential for us to meet our commitment to match our Global Affairs Canada funding of $1 million with FHF funds of $240,000; every dollar you give levers four more. But the impact goes beyond that. Your donations have always helped Kenyan farm families have a better life. Now, we are hearing that they reach beyond those families to help grandchildren sent from cities, other extended family, and neighbours, and they are helping all of them to not only do better but also stay safer. In short, your donation this year will make a bigger difference than ever to more people than before.
Meanwhile, FHF is also seeing some changes. In July, we held our Annual General Meeting, which included board renewal and awards. We thanked departing board members Reg MacDonald and Gerry McQuaid for their six years of board service, and their work including, respectively, Chair of the Finance Committee and Chair of the Fundraising Committee. Their contributions are more fully recognized in the awards article later in this newsletter. Our thanks go also to board member Janet Bysterveldt who stepped down in January. We welcomed new board members Charlene VanLeeuwen and Kendra Thurston, and Ron Herbert who had joined us in March. On the operations front, we adapted to virtual work over the spring and summer, and we have functioned for most of the year without paid administrative help, further focusing our resources on Kenya. Thanks go to coordinator Teresa Mellish and many other volunteers for taking on this additional work.
Looking forward, FHF will track and adapt to the changing situation in Kenya. We are exploring the possibility of a one-year project extension. We will also continue to recognize our 40th Anniversary, extended to 2021 due to Covid. This year, we began to celebrate the initial origins of FHF; next year, we will celebrate the trip by FHF’s founders to Kenya that energized the group and created the relationships that moved things forward. Over the winter, we will work as a Board to consider the longer-term implications of the pandemic for how we do our work, and how FHF should evolve to stay strong and effective.
We are needed more than ever and I am optimistic that together we will continue to make a difference.
President’s Report
FHF Annual General Meeting, July 23, 2020
By Wendy MacDonald
Forty years after we began our work, it’s been an extraordinary year for Farmers Helping Farmers – a year of growth, of change, and most recently, of uncertainty.
Following our AGM of June 2019, we had a great summer – including another successful Village Feast held by our friends in Souris, our 38th annual barbecue that set records for both attendance and volunteer turnout, and a great reaction to our ‘shamba’ float by the tens of
thousands of people watching the Gold Cup and Saucer parade.
In September, we signed a Contribution Agreement with Global Affairs Canada for funding of one million dollars for our new four-year project, More Food, Better Food: Empowering Kenyan Farm Women. We were among the first of the 21 small and medium charities funded by GAC
to reach this milestone, building on almost two years of work by the Project Committee since late 2017.
Following a financial workshop with GAC in October, we were given permission to begin work immediately. Teresa Mellish and John VanLeeuwen spent most of November in Kenya, establishing partnership agreements with seven new women’s groups, three new dairies, five new schools, and the Meru County Governor, and developing plans and approaches for project implementation. During their visit, they provided solar lights/chargers to the more than 300 members of the seven new women’s groups.
Also in November, we launched what became our best Holiday Campaign yet. Through the generosity of our community of support, over $70,000 was raised. These funds are critically important, because they enable us to provide our share of funding for the More Food, Better Food project –$240,000 over the life of the project. The support of our donors also enables us to continue our other important work not part of the federal project, including support for previously partnered schools, women’s groups and dairies. Thanks go to the Fundraising Committee and the Membership and Communications Committee for these achievements.
In December, our Kenyan staff began work to install water tanks at the homes of the women’s group members. The scale of work and an effective procurement process resulted in a very good price for the tanks; the women provided the concrete bases for the tanks; and Holiday Campaign donors generously contributed additional funds – making it possible for each and every member of the new women’s groups to get a tank – 324 in total, far more than was originally thought possible. Delivery and installation continued throughout the winter and early spring of 2020, with the final few tanks installed and all signage completed in April.
Thanks go to our hard-working and dedicated Kenyan staff, to our team at home, and to our donors who made this remarkable achievement possible.
The New Year began on a high note. Work stepped up on recognition and celebrations of our 40th anniversary year, with a flow of content on our social media channels harking back to our early years, outreach to our members, and planning for a variety of events in the spring and summer.
Also in early 2020, FHF had another successful volunteer trip to Kenya. A group of 11 travelled to Kenya from January 25 to February 14, and carried out a wide range of work. Lynn Townshend, Teresa Mellish, and staff delivered bookkeeping training or refreshers to all 400 members of the eight women’s groups.
Peter Townshend, Kendra Thurston, Ken Mellish and staff built, tested, and refined a prototype potato sprayer to help farmers spray pesticides more safely – an initiative for which FHF is seeking further federal funding. John VanLeeuwen and his team of students delivered training to the dairy clubs – groups of 15-20 farmer members of the new dairy co-ops – and cared for hundreds of cows at clinics and farms.
Colleen Walton and new staff member, nutritionist James Mureithi, designed and delivered nutrition training to Nutrition Champs, parent groups, women’s groups, and dairy clubs. Partnerships were
extended with the Meru County Government’s extension and health staff.
Later in February, two pre-service teachers began their placement at Kiirua Primary, and volunteers Heather and Paulette Jones visited twinned schools to update information on needs and priorities. This built on the work of the Education Committee throughout the year to support twinning relationships and letter exchanges, and to welcome five new schools andmatch them with twinning partners here at home.
In more good news on the education front, congratulations go to Patsy Dingwell on the upcoming publication of her children’s book, Broken Crayons, telling a heartwarming story of sharing by Kenyan students.
When these trips began in January, the coronavirus seemed like a distant threat. A month later, the threat had gotten bigger, and moved closer. Our education volunteers were able to return home from Kenya in late February – disappointed to have to come home earlier than planned, but safe.
Work continued at home while watching COVID developments. In March 2020, the Project Implementation Plan for the More Food, Better Food project was signed, another important milestone. This plan sets out the five-year schedule of activities, the detailed budget, the goals and indicators, and the reporting requirements. In April, the first round of financial and
performance reports for 2019-20 was compiled and submitted to GAC, indicating that almost one-third of project funding had been successfully expended over the first six months of the project, to the great benefit of the families helped. The reports were well received by GAC.
Thanks go to the project Co-Managers Janell MacDonald and Teresa Mellish for their foundational work on these complex and extensive new processes and requirements.
In mid-March, as we all know, everything changed. In PEI, we entered a new world of stay-athome orders, social distancing, and cancelled gatherings. While we rapidly adjusted to doing our work via Zoom meetings, our plans for 40th anniversary celebrations and fundraising events went by the board, as did school twinning activities, planned missions by nutrition and vet students in May, and our longer-range plans for project travel to Kenya in early 2021.
Our focus shifted to adapting to the current situation. During the spring, the Finance Committee overhauled the budget format and proposed significant reductions in 2020-21 spending in light of expected lower revenues and deferred travel. The Membership and Communications Committee developed the Spring Newsletter, updated and organized our database on our community of support, and developed a new approach to membership for consideration at the Annual General Meeting.
As President, I have taken part in a number of training activities provided by federal funders, including a conference on inclusive governance (November), a workshop on community-led data collection (March), and online training in risk management (May) and fundraising in a time of COVID (June).
In Kenya, meanwhile, the first case of COVID-19 was identified in mid-March. The national government immediately imposed restrictions on gatherings, and closed schools shortly after.
We grappled with the question of how to adapt our activities in a way that best balanced the benefits that our work brings to Kenyan families, with the need to keep them and our staff safe from infection. Given that there were no known cases in Meru County, we directed staff to shift their work from the group training that was no longer permitted, to one-on-one work with
individual farmers. Measures were taken to ensure that staff travel safely rather than using public transit, take health protection measures, and use a consent protocol to interact with farm families.
Since that time, our staff have continued to work diligently to the benefit of farm families, including:
Procuring and installing fuel-efficient, health-promoting cookstoves with chimneys to the 70 members of the Mwende Women’s Group (an existing partner who did not receive water tanks under the GAC project). Thanks go to the Rotary Club of Charlottetown for their contribution to this initiative;
Planting demonstration plots of lucerne at the farms of members of each of the 22 dairy clubs, to promote a shift to this high-protein dairy forage that increases milk production;
Planting vegetable seedling nurseries for women’s groups and helping women farmers to plant vegetable grow bags for their families;
Gathering information and delivering training on infant and young child nutrition to the farm families in the project; and
Distributing health promotion information and masks.
Taken together, the work to date has been of enormous benefit to these hundreds of families, making them more food secure, more water secure, and more fuel secure. Thank you to our staff – Salome Ntinyari, Stephen Mwenda, Douglas Gikundi, Stephen Chandi, Leah Kariuki, and James Mureithi.
While COVID levels continue to be low in Meru County – 30 known cases at this time of this report – levels have been rising in recent days. Longer-term, some forecasts suggest that a period of economic hardship and possible social unrest lies ahead for many countries. In an increasingly uncertain time, FHF’s work is making these families more resilient and selfsufficient, increasing their capacity to stay at home if need be, and to keep themselves safe and well.
Looking ahead, we must continue to pursue these goals, and to adapt our approaches to do so as effectively as possible. I am confident that FHF will be able to do so, because the past year has demonstrated our strength and capacity in our people – our board, our volunteers, our staff, our donors and friends, and our partners. I thank you all for your ideas, your work, your support, and your commitment to a better future for Kenyan farm families.
President's Message
By Wendy MacDonald
May 2020
Dear friends of Farmers Helping Farmers,
Since our last newsletter, our lives have changed profoundly, and with the discovery of two cases of COVID-19 in Meru County in late May, the lives of our Kenyan staff and farm families are beginning to see major changes as well. The future is unclear – but we can say, with certainty, that FHF’s work of the past six months has put our Kenyan partners in a far stronger situation to cope with whatever lies ahead. And we are optimistic that this vital work will continue.
Two elements have been critical to our progress since last fall – our new federally funded project, More Food, Better Food: Empowering Kenyan Women Farmers, and your record-breaking support for FHF’s Holiday Campaign, needed to match federal funds.

In November, Teresa Mellish and John VanLeeuwen visited Kenya and signed agreements with seven new women’s groups, three new dairies, four new schools, and the Meru County government. They also distributed solar lamps to every member of the seven new groups. During November, our Kenyan staff began the work of placing water tanks at the home of every member of the new women’s groups, as described more fully later in this newsletter by Teresa. Because of this work, 400 families are more self-sufficient and more food secure – increasing their ability to shelter safely at home while they must.
Our work continued with the annual tour by FHF volunteers in January and February. Three busy weeks later, much had been accomplished, as described in several of the articles below. All 400 members of the new women’s groups had received bookkeeping training or a refresher from Lynn Townshend and Teresa.
John and the three vet students – Ashley, Angelina, and Krystina – had worked to boost milk production and cow health through both training seminars, and direct care and treatment of cows. Ken Mellish also delivered dairy nutrition training, and oversaw the launch of new forage choppers at several dairies.

We welcomed a new staff member, human nutritionist James Mutahi, who worked with Colleen to train nutrition Champs in our new women’s groups, and to design and deliver nutrition training to women’s groups, dairy clubs, and school parents.
Team members Peter Townshend, Kendra Thurston, and Ken Mellish designed and constructed a prototype potato sprayer with help from our staff and local tradespersons, essential to a current FHF proposal for innovation funding. As President, I had the pleasure of getting to know many of the new partners, better understanding their aims and needs, and building our relationships with them.

We returned to Canada in mid-February. Shortly afterwards, as concern about the pandemic mounted, our pre-service teachers and our two education volunteers cut their stay short and returned safely to PEI. Our Kenyan staff continued their work, focusing on completing water tank installation, and delivering dairy and nutrition training. In mid-March, the first shoe fell, with the identification of Kenya’s first known COVID-19 case. We immediately directed our staff to stop any work involving gatherings, and to place priority on the water tanks and on work that increased food security for families, such as seedling nurseries, vegetable grow bags, and planting of lucerne plots at dairy farms.
In late May, the second shoe fell with the identification of two cases of COVID-19 in Meru County. Our staff had put in long hours and showed tremendous dedication in getting project work underway, significantly protecting our project families against COVID-19. As we are committed to their safety as well as the safety of the families with whom they work, we have directed our staff to work from home until further notice. During this period, their work will include advice and messaging to farmers via cellphone. We are hopeful that on-farm work can resume in the medium term, and that gatherings and group training will become possible again in the longer term.
Here at home, FHF is also adapting to our changing circumstances. Board and committee work has shifted online, and we plan to take this approach to our AGM in July as well.
Unfortunately, Zoom won’t work for the annual barbecue, or the Gold Cup parade! With regret, we are deferring those events as well as our planned 40th anniversary celebrations to 2021. As we won’t be able to gather in person, we will work harder to keep in touch with you in other ways. We plan to send you short monthly updates, each highlighting a particular area of our work. We will seek your input to help us put together the story of our first 40 years, and to share photos and information about your involvement in FHF. Later this year, we will also be reaching out to you for your support of our annual Holiday Campaign, which becomes more important than ever with the cancellation of our other fundraisers this year.
In the longer term, we remain optimistic. We have laid a solid foundation, and now we have some time to reflect, rethink, adapt, and renew. As the pandemic evolves, we hope to be back in Kenya, stronger than ever.

President's Message
By Wendy MacDonald
October 2019
Dear friends of Farmers Helping Farmers,
Next year, 2020, will mark our 40th anniversary– and we are looking forward to celebrations at home, and at stepping up to an even broader scope and scale of work in Kenya to help farm families change their lives for the better. It’s your support and involvement that makes this possible.
You’ve helped make it a great summer for Farmers Helping Farmers – as the stories in this newsletter demonstrate. At our AGM, in June, our annual awards recognized some of our many wonderful volunteers and supporters. In July, the Souris Village Feast was a rousing success, raising funds for more cookhouses and school gardens at Kenyan schools.
In August, our Annual Beef Barbecue had such great take-up that we ran out of tickets – but thanks to our volunteers and supporters, we didn’t run out of food! A week later, at the Gold Cup Parade, we had a warm response from the crowd for our float showing a shamba and water tank setup. In September, we gratefully received donations
from a range of supporter events including Hamilton Heritage Days and the Three Oaks Run. We thank you for your involvement in these events and your contributions in many other ways.

(L to R) Colleen Walton, outgoing FHF President, and Wendy MacDonald, FHF President
Our summer and fall also saw much hard work by FHF board and committee members to move our organization forward on multiple fronts. Earlier this fall, after a two-year proposal process, FHF signed an agreement with Global Affairs Canada for a four-year project with $1 million in federal funding. The project, More Food, Better Food: Empowering Kenyan Women Farmers, will combine the full range of our proven approaches to improve food security and nutrition of hundreds more farm families. We expect that the details of the project will be formally announced in the coming months. Meantime, work is already underway to develop a plan, establish agreements with a range of partners, hire additional staff in Kenya, purchase water tanks and solar lamps, and gather baseline data.
More Food, Better Food will require us to attain a new level of volunteer involvement and donor support. Over the four years, 49 volunteers will be needed for three week placements in Kenya, and over $250,000 will need to be raised to contribute FHF’s share of the project’s cash needs. Please take a look at the volunteer ad on the following page, and/or consider donating to the Holiday Campaign. For eligible items, your donation will be multiplied five-fold with matching federal funds.
Education is at the heart of long-term progress, and our important work continues to foster school twinning arrangements, build global awareness among Island students, and make Kenyan schools more safe and inclusive. A number of new twinning arrangements are being put in place, and new online and video approaches are being explored to complement traditional letter exchanges and more fully engage today’s generation of students.
Lots will be happening before our next newsletter! Please stay abreast of events by visiting our Facebook page, following us on Twitter, and reading blogs by our students and volunteers- see page 6 for contact details. Again, thanks for your interest in our work. You make it possible.
Wendy MacDonald, President, Farmers Helping Farmers
President's Message
by Colleen Walton
April 2018
As we roll slowly into the spring, I reflect on the incredible community of supporters of our work with Kenyan Farm families. The annual January trip found 13 volunteers and students in Kenya working as trainers in agriculture, book keeping and dairy herd management. Their efforts enhance the year-round work of our Kenyan staff in building skills and knowledge for rural Kenyan farmers in order that they may enhance their agricultural production, reduce their level of poverty and improve their overall quality of life. In addition to training, FHF prides ourselves in the ability to provide critical items that allow farmers to make the most of their new knowledge and for schools to become better places for children’s learning. Much of the fundraising for these critical items comes from our annual Christmas campaign.
We are grateful for the long-term support of people in PEI and beyond and I would like to share the impact that these contributions have on Kenyan farm families. With almost $50,000 raised in our Christmas campaign, Farmers Helping Farmers will positively impact the lives of roughly 1500 individuals in their farm households and a further 4500 children in schools in Kenya. Water tanks will be installed on the home of 20 families which will save the girls and women countless hours of carrying water from distant sources. This increases the chance that the girls will continue in school and enables the women farmers to spend more time and energy on productive farm work and caring for their family. As well, almost 100 households will have the materials to grow vegetables in small spaces with vegetable grow bags, good quality seeds and a pitchfork to make compost for good soil. Vegetables are just as important for healthy children in Kenya as in Canada, but in Kenya most rural household must grow their own vegetables or do without.
As part of our work with schools in Kenya, FHF provides the opportunity for PEI schools to twin with Kenyan schools. From the Christmas campaign, 15 Kenyan schools will receive funds for books. This means that roughly 4500 school children will have access to new books to enhance their learning. The donation of funds for solar lights will help an additional 46 students study at night and provide light in their homes without using costly and dangerous kerosene. As well, these solar lights can be used to charge a cell phone which otherwise would cost the farmer both time and money to charge it at a local phone kiosk.
One school, in a particularly dry and rocky area, will receive milk for their roughly 50 younger students for the year. These children will be served their morning uji (porridge) made with milk as opposed to the usual water. This makes the uji incredibly more nutritious for these young minds and bodies. This nutritious uji sets these students up for a good learning day at school and, fast forward, for a greater chance of success and ability to help break the cycle of poverty in Kenya.
I assure you that 100% of your donations are going straight to Kenya. In fact, items are being purchased, distributed and installed by our Kenyan staff as you read this newsletter.
Thank you once again to all our volunteers and donors for your support and confidence that FHF is working hard to make sustainable change in the lives of Kenyan farm families.
President's Message
by Colleen Walton
November 2017
It has been another exciting and eventful year with Farmers Helping Farmers. Volunteers and students travelled to Kenya to work with farmers, women’s groups and schools in many ways, but with one goal - to sustainably improve the lives of Kenyan communities, families and children.
This summer it was particularly exciting to share in the 10th anniversary celebration of Souris Village Feast. FHF recognized their contribution to building cookhouses and, as consequences, improving the health and education of the students at Kenyan twinned school. FHF has the support of many many individuals and organizations and I would like to thank you all for your continued support for the important work in Kenya.
The year-round work of countless volunteers in PEI is central to FHF’s important impacts in Kenya. Without your work at the BBQ, selling crafts, participating in a committee, leading a committee or sitting on the Board, FHF would not be the strong organization that it is, nor, most importantly, be able to support the development of our Kenyan partner communities. It is an honour to be president of Farmers Helping Farmers and I want to thank you all for your time, expertise and commitment.
As we move toward Christmas please remember the FHF Holiday Campaign in your gift giving and the needs in Kenya to build stronger and more resilient communities.
I encourage you to read more about FHF’s work and celebrations in our Fall Newsletter and be proud to be part of this organization.