Education Colombia Project #41902

Bring digital technology to 550 Colombian Farmers

by FUNDACION MAS POR TIC

Bring digital technology to 550 Colombian Farmers

Project Report | May 11, 2020
COVID-19: Denied Basic Human Rights Once Again

By The Mas Por TIC Team | Project Leader

ENGLISH:

Dearest patron,

We sincerely hope that you and your family remain healthy and positive.

In this extremely challenging context, we wanted to reach out to re-assert our gratitude, and update you on how your continued support is helping us fight for the rights of rural communities in Colombia during this COVID-19 pandemic.

The current situation has shown us, more clearly than ever before, that empowering rural communities with technology is vital to the fight against inequality. And we must keep fighting.

Rural communities have been forced to send proposals to the government. Along a variety of other difficulties, lack of access to technology and internet has left nearly 2 million school children in rural Colombia stripped of their fundamental right to education, and a devastating majority unable to access governmental economic support.

We are working with rural leaders on the ground to assist them in every way possible, communicating the rights and necessities of farmers to higher bodies. We have also incentivised discussions with Agtech, a group of 50 professionals from different sectors, to give light on these difficulties and the future opportunities that may arise from the current situation.

COVID-19 has brought about many problems for our farmers. It has created huge issues in transport and distribution, commercialisation of their products has become even more complex and they no longer have easy access to necessary supplies for crop cultivation. All of these would have been easily solved with access to internet.

We are working harder than ever to understand their necessities and to uphold our support in helping alleviate these issues. As part of our efforts, we have helped put Rocío in contact with transporters in order to minimise the problems she is facing. Furthermore, we are making every effort to speed up our technical assistance programme so that this can be implemented as soon as possible to help those who need it.

We remain incredibly thankful for your continued support, and send you all of the best wishes,

The Más por TIC Team

ESPAÑOL

Se les niegan Derechos Humanos básicos aún durante una pandemia

Querido patrocinador,

Esperamos muy sinceramente que usted y su familia se encuentren sanos y optimistas.

En este contexto extremadamente desafiante, queríamos ponernos en contacto con usted para reafirmar nuestra gratitud, y ponerle al día sobre la manera en cual su apoyo sigue ayudándonos en nuestra lucha por los derechos de agricultores en Colombia durante esta pandemia de COVID-19.

La situación actual nos ha mostrado, más que nunca, que empoderar a comunidades rurales con tecnología es crucial para la lucha en contra de la desigualdad. Y que debemos seguir luchando.

Comunidades rurales no han tenido otra opción que mandar propuestas al gobierno. Al lado de una gran variedad de otras dificultades, la falta de acceso a tecnología e internet ha revocado a casi 2 millones de niños su derecho fundamental a la educación, y una mayoría agobiante de personas su capacidad de acceder a apoyo económico gubernamental.

Estamos trabajando con líderes rurales para ayudarles de todas las manera posibles, comunicando las necesidades y los derechos de agricultores a las entidades correspondientes. También, hemos impulsado discusiones con Agtech, un grupo de 50 profesionales de sectores distintos, para destacar esas dificultades y explorar oportunidades futuras que pueden surgir de la situación actual.

COVID-19 ha originado muchos problemas para los agricultores. Ha creado desafíos grandes en transporte y distribución, la comercialización de productos y acceso a insumos críticos para cultivar. Todas estos obstáculos pueden verse disminuidos con acceso al internet.

Estamos trabajando más que nunca para entender las necesidades de los agricultores, brindándoles apoyo continuo para contender con sus dificultades. En el caso de Rocío, le hemos ayudado a ponerse en contacto con transportadores para aliviar los problemas logísticos que está enfrentando. Además, estamos haciendo todo lo posible para acelerar el proyecto de generar asistencia técnica a distancia para que sea implementado lo más pronto posible.

Permanecemos muy agradecidos por su apoyo, y le enviamos los mejores deseos,

Links:

Rural Communities' Proposal to the Government

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Mar 10, 2020
We keep moving!

By Mas Por TIC | Leader

Here we go again. It's been amazing to see how time flies.

Here's what we've been on for the last three months:

You may remember from our last report that we started to structure the implementation of the project, even if we're still short of the goal. Having said that, Eliana met with the newly-elected Council of Granada. in recent weeks. She delivered an informative session, that seemed like a workshop, on which she explained how important it is to integrate public policy actions with NGOs like ours.

This meeting helped us understand the huge gap that persists between rural and urban, not only in terms of connectivity or income levels, we have different but complementary perspectives of how development should be done. Hence, we suggested that our program for Young Leaders in Rural Areas could be a good fit for the next years in order to increase education and opportunities for farmers in Granada.

Also, we are under a restructuring process within the Fundación. We will change some elements of our structure in order to adapt to the new challenges. Part of this process includes the addition of a very valuable member, Rocío.

Rocío is one of the most important young rural leaders in Granada and she's been collaborating with for a few years. After a few meetings, we came to the conclusion that she should have a seat in Mas Por TIC and lead the Young Rural Leaders Program from within the organization so, after a few talks, we can tell you that she'll be part of Mas Por TIC, but we're still working on the paperwork and we'll announce it in due time.

We also presented Mas Por TIC and talked about the challenges of access to knowledge that Colombian farmers have in the 1st Meeting of Experiences and Perspectives of Supply as mechanisms of regional integration # CumbreAgriculturaRegiónCentral

Last but not least, we had to postpone a consulting project we had with Project Colombia and the Case Western University, from the USA. You might guess why... yes, the CoVi19. We regret to change our plans due to unforeseen circumstances but we hope to overcome the virus and rejoin efforts with them.

All the best and see you in three months!

The Mas Por TIC Team

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ESPAÑOL

Aquí vamos de nuevo. Ha sido sorprendente ver cómo pasa el tiempo.

Esto es lo que hemos estado haciendo durante los últimos tres meses:

Puedes recordar de nuestro último informe que comenzamos a estructurar la implementación del proyecto, incluso si todavía estamos lejos de la meta de recursos. Dicho esto, Eliana se reunió hace poca semanas con el recién elegido Consejo de Granada. Ofreció una sesión informativa, que parecía un taller, en la que explicó lo importante que es integrar las acciones de política pública con ONGs como la nuestra.

Esta reunión nos ayudó a comprender la enorme brecha que persiste entre lo rural y lo urbano, no solo en términos de conectividad o niveles de ingresos, sino que también tenemos perspectivas diferentes pero complementarias de cómo se debe promover el desarrollo. Por lo tanto, sugerimos que nuestro programa para Jóvenes Líderes en Áreas Rurales podría ser una buena opción para los próximos años a fin de aumentar la educación y las oportunidades para los agricultores en Granada.

Además, estamos bajo un proceso de reestructuración dentro de la Fundación. Cambiaremos algunos elementos de nuestra estructura para adaptarnos a los nuevos desafíos. Parte de este proceso incluye la incorporación de un miembro muy valioso, Rocío.

Rocío es una de las líderes rurales jóvenes más importantes de Granada y ha estado colaborando durante algunos años. Después de algunas reuniones, llegamos a la conclusión de que ella debería tener un asiento en Mas Por TIC y dirigir el Programa de Jóvenes Líderes Rurales desde dentro de la organización, por lo que, después de algunas conversaciones, podemos decir que ella será parte de Mas Por TIC, pero todavía estamos trabajando en el papeleo y lo anunciaremos oficialmente a su debido tiempo.

Presentamos a Más Por TIC y Hablamos de los retos de acceso al conocimiento que tienen los agricultores de Colombia en el 1er Encuentro de Experiencias y Perspectivas del Abastecimiento como mecanismos de la integración regional #CumbreAgriculturaRegiónCentral

Por último, pero no menos importante, tuvimos que posponer un proyecto de consultoría que tuvimos con el Proyecto Colombia y la Universidad Case Western, de EE. UU. Podrías adivinar por qué ... sí, el CoVi19. Lamentamos cambiar nuestros planes debido a circunstancias imprevistas, pero esperamos superar el virus y unir esfuerzos con ellos.

Todo lo mejor y nos vemos en tres meses!

El equipo de Mas Por TIC

Presentacion Concejo de Granada

Cumbre de Integracion Regional

Rocio

Links:

Rocio / Our new crew member

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Dec 9, 2019
We are already making progress towards our goal!

By Mas Por TIC | Project Leader

workshop for small farmers

Thanks for your support! We have already started the implementation of our project and we have some exciting news to share with all of you.

First of all, being our first time ever as Global Giving partners we really feel the love and support of the community and the farmers in Noruega Berdum are also feeling it. This makes us proud of what we have achieved but also increases our commitment and desire towards our main goal.

We already had the first session of ignition and engagement with some of the farmers. Around 25 farmers know more about the project and about CultivoRed and we expect them to continue working in the next workshop and training session.

We had a good first session of training on which many of them already demonstrated why there's such hope in Colombia's countryside. We already have some focalized groups of potential Young Leaders that can be our replicators, the next step is to effectively train them.

We are already piloting some knowledge transfer strategies involving the farmers, and actually, some of them are on route to be the first replicators by the beginning of 2020.

We created some WhatsApp groups with technical experts who will interact and solve some frequently asked questions by the farmers. We are doing this because once we can identify the best channel for communication we can design specific alphabetization strategies and better exploit such channels which in the end would prove to be more beneficial for the community.

Recently, we started some collaboration projects with other NGOs that are interested in piloting alphabetization strategies and tools and we are aiming at including this into our very own methodology. In fact, we believe most of our projects will get stronger the more we collaborate with other organizations.

In terms of the platform, we will continue looking for funding so we can have an MVP before the first half of 2020. For now, we are focusing our efforts on the offline part of the project given that this is usually more demanding.

This is a very brief summary of what we have done since the beginning of the project, we are very excited and looking forward to 2020. Also, given that we are already in December, all the members of Mas Por TIC wish a happy Christmas and a very happy new year!

Yours,

The team @ Mas Por TIC

future young rural leaders

understanding main challenge in rural area

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