Hi everyone! My name is Ashvin Tiwana and I’m participating in a youth volunteering project organized by Project WHEE! from January 16 - 25, 2018, at Bario, Sarawak.
As society becomes increasingly money-oriented along with the progression of time, plots of paddy fields in Bario are left uncultivated as the laborious cost of manual farming outweighs its returns. The introduction of mechanized farming has successfully revitalized the paddy sector in Bario and provided the Kelabit community the chance to venture into other more lucrative opportunities. Unfortunately, this means the diminishing of an essential aspect of the Kelabit culture – traditional paddy farming. In no time, the skills and knowledge of paddy cultivation acquired over centuries will only be found in books and museums if traditional paddy farming is left unpracticed. Therefore, for the coming year, Project WHEE!, alongside the Southeast Asian Council for Food Security and Fair Trade (SEACON), aims to obtain data that can help conducive food, agriculture, and trade policies exist at the domestic, regional, and international levels.My duty as a volunteer for this programme is to collect accurate and unbiased agricultural data from the Kelabit paddy farmers at the grassroots level and provide the necessary information needed by Project WHEE! and (SEACON) to develop good policies, as well as promote Bario as the best practice model for socio-economic development for rural communities. I will also have the opportunity to work in the paddy field with my assigned Kelabit family and undergo cultural exchange experiences with them.
I am hoping to fundraise a total of RM2500 which covers my project expenses, registration fee, airfare (two way tickets from KL-MIRI and MIRI-BARIO) accommodation and food. Post project, I will be posting up several blog entries about my time in Bario (blog link to be added soon).
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