A talk by Gouri Mirpuri THE LEARNING FARM: PLANTING THE SEEDS OF CHANGE
Transcript
A talk by Gouri Mirpuri
THE LEARNING FARM: PLANTING THE SEEDS OF CHANGE
Street Youth Environmental Degradation
Rural-Urban Migration
Food Security
Lack of employable skills
Where vulnerable young men get a second chance at life through
organic farming
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The farm started off 5 years ago, and today is a fun, thriving place full of hope because of the work of our core team, our enthusiastic volunteers and our hands-on approach to education.
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We take in all manner of vulnerable young men, a total of 40 per session. These used to be street kids and young men from orphanages, but more and more we are seeing a need amongst victims of conflict and natural disaster. Our latest batch has 20 young men from the recently erupted Mount Merapi area, who have nothing to do as the ash is still hot and the land unable to be cultivated. We work with over 50 NGOs, mostly local, to identify our recruits. They are all between 16 and 26. All men, it is hard to mix young boys with girls at this age without intense supervision. They must not be on drugs, that is something beyond our expertise. Most important, they must have that twinkle in their eye which a desire to learn a skill for a better life.
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WHY farming? These are boys who have failed the education system, and sad to say, for one reason or another, the education system has failed them. The usual reaction is to set up free schools for these kids…but that does not solve the problem. These boys learn best by doing. They need skills with which they can get jobs, quickly earn a living. There is precious little vocational training in Indonesia. Here they are offered a fresh way of looking at farming, themselves and their futures to help them find better ways to contribute to their communities and lead meaningful lives.
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Four months for the basic course, where they learn all the fundamentals of farming and basic life skills. Four months for the advanced course if they show real promise, and here they learn leadership skills and community outreach.
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They learn about farming: planting, organic composting, natural pesticide management, environmental protection, harvesting,…the list is long. But they also learn marketing, packaging, accounts, computer skills… to help make them not just farmers, but farmer entrepreneurs. And they learn about life. They learn discipline, getting up in the morning (something street kids have never done!), hygene, self-respect and setting goals…much of this teaching comes from our corporate volunteers.
Sponsor Life Skills/Entrepreneurship Starbucks Farmers school and community
HERE is a list of the kind of life and entrepreneur skills our sponsors help with…
Praised as “an affective, andragogic curriculum” by AVI curriculum expert.
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The Learning Farm has evolved a curriculum based on common sense, by getting into these young men’s minds, by trial and error. We had a curriculum expert from AVI evaluate us for a year, and she praised our affective, andragogic curriculum. We had to look up these two concepts in wikipedia. Affective is a concept from psychology meaning “moods, emotions, feelings, attitudes” So we are being praised for first paying attention to the boys as individuals. Andragogic is in contrast to pedagogic. A pedagogic approach is the traditional teacher-focused top-down learning we have all unfortunately experienced. An andragogic approach is learner-focused and self-directed learning. I will not go into the five areas that an Andragogic model emphasises, suffice it to say that “we learn best by what we do, that experience is the best living textbook.”
36%
9%
43%
7% 5% Organic farming
Return to formal education
Non-farming jobs
Unemployed
Not known
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We have graduated over 300 young men. Many “pulang kampong” or return to their hometowns and villages, were they are most comfortable and confident. Some have parents land to return to. Others get together as a group and lease a a plot of land to cultivate. Our staff visit the alumni regularly to provide assistance. Some find jobs in other organic farms or organizations that want to go organic. Bali has had an explosion in demand for organic produce and many of our boys are hired to run these farms. (Green School - four fold - four more graduates) We are setting up an urban organic farm in north Jakarta. Also we have started to franchise our model farm and curriculum to other cities and towns in Indonesia. Our boys have opportunities for jobs in these places.
FARMER’S MARKETS
Funding and Support
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We sell the vegetables back to customers in Jakarta. Orders come by email, and our boys who also learn computer skills, prepare these orders, package it, and then deliver it on two motorcycles door to door. This teaches them the whole cycle from production to sales. But we also organize weekly Farmers Markets.
Corporate Support
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And we have our corporate sponsors. They all expressed a desire to go beyond financial support and make a real difference as part of their CSR. We have a detailed schedule of how they can help prepare our youth with the LIFE SKILLS that they will need for the outside world.
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We also have individuals and schools who are donors and volunteers. (brochures for individual sponsorships of the boys…)
370 Graduates…all doing us proud!
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Our success is seen ultimately in our human outcomes. Nurkolis (street racer - teeth - bali), Yoko (yogya). Ali (jumping on busses to sell oil - back to parents land)
