What a wonderful finale to the 12 days we have all spent together! Seeing the children present the puppet show to the gathering of Hong Ha's children and their farmer parents, watching participants sing the Hong Ha song and see the rush on our comic books.! It made me feel so proud, as did taking the photo of us all gathered under the billboard we collectively created. The head of the farmer's union promised to ensure the song was aired every morning and evening! Wow. My thanks to the local government and all our new friends in the commune. May their rice wine continue to flow!

I have had such a fun and uplifting time with all of you. Thank you for your hard work, commitment and belief in one another. When we all come together we can create meaningful change in each other and in the communities in which we live. Thank you Loren for introducing Rare to the Living Bio-bed concept; thank you Long and your wonderful CCS staff for being such incredible hosts, and thank you David, Song, Trang et al for all the help and assistance you have provided. Above all thank you Van for all the logistical help you have given to us all. The twelve days may have been hard but the arrangements were flawless, thanks to Van. As we all head home, let us remain friends, remain connected and continue to give voice to those who may not be able to speak up so easily. Travel safe and carry with you fond memories, I know I will....Song will send out the final newsletter (#5) later today, so please kep an eye out for that

Finally, I will send out a reminder on Rare's small grant program next week but know that I can always be reached here or through my email pbutler@rare.org or via Skype pbutlerrare

Thank you... Cam on!

Paul

Tomorrow ….

I am going to Hong Ha community

In the banks of Red River

Along with friends of Living Bio-beds

Who believed in the living systems

Fair enough for many returns.

Tomorrow…

I am going to Hong Ha community

In the plains of green paddy fields

Along with promises of Living Bio-beds

To herald the message of living beds

Fair enough for many returns.

Tomorrow….

We are going to Hong Ha Community

In the midst of women, men, boys and girls

Along with a song, a billboard, a puppet show, a comic

To amplify the need of Living Bio- beds

Fair enough for many returns.

Tomorrow…..

I am heading back to the Naga Hills

Along with the new learning of Living Bio-bed

The concepts, ToC, social marketing, change….

Along with fond memories of our togetherness

In the lap of nature, thunderstorms, rain and sun

Truly fair enough for many fold returns

Tomorrow

I am heading back home

The living bed journey continues……

Day 10

 We continue and finalize Group Puppets, Comic book, billboard & recording song 

Day 11

Activities update and review all training, complete all materials, small group for practice and handover ceremony certificate to participants 

Thank you for you support and give me new knowledge. 

Here comes newsletter for Day 8 and 9. Enjoy reading!

Newsletter Day 8 and 9_ppt_Vietnamese.pdfNewsletter Day 8 and 9_ppt.pdf

Here comes the newsletter of Day 6 and 7. Enjoy reading!

Day_5 ( The day of theories )

We learned using DATA in campaign design SMART object such as using the 4Ps to create an effective marketing strategy, massage strategy and development

Day_6 ( The day of practices)

The work shop invited guest to join collateral design: we focused to Hongha community 

Group A: Work with artist on bill board

Group B: Work with musician on a song

Group C: Work together to create a comic book 

Group D: Work on puppet show script with feed back from teacher

These session very interesting for me

Day_ 7 rest day

Just as you need the right ingredients to prepare and cook an outstanding meal (for example pork raised on Living Bio-beds, prepared at an outstanding farm that uses sustainable methods to produce its meat, fish and vegetables) you also need the right ingredients to produce high quality, persuasive materials to promote behavior change... A key ingredient is a team of creative hard working individuals who work together, use data to drive decisions and who test what they produce before it is "finally cooked". In the Vietnam C4C program we have those ingredients. An excellent set of partners (CCS, A Growing Concern and IFOAM) who are working in the kitchen with us and a whole group of chef's who are committed to creating the best product. Passionate, dynamic and hard working. Yesterday working together in a single day this team of chefs created a puppet script, wrote and produced a song, developed three billboard drafts and created a comic, as well as building a puppet theater and then testing all of this with a group of Hong Ha farmers who represent our target audience. The messages used came from data collected on Day 3 and the slogans originated from a team effort that was then validated by the farmers themselves. It was fun-day packed with inspiring insights a lot of hard work and many, many laughs. Look out for newsletter #3 to read more and see photos of the day. I'd like to thank the group for their efforts in the "kitchen" and for being my heroes! You are a wonderful group to work with!!!! We will continue our materials production on Wednesday after having two days of technical sessions with Long, Loren, David, Trang et al... Looking forward to it.Oh... and the pork meal we ate at the farm was fantastic!!! You are right pork raised on bio-beds REALLY does taste better!

Hi everyone, here comes Newsletter of Day 4 and 5! Enjoy reading! Thanks for your hard work:)

Hello everyone! My name is Thanh (From CCS)

It was an amazing day with me to have a nice field trip to Ngoc Linh ecogarden. I'm really love pigs and people there with their great works.

Thanks to their efford, we have oppotunity to know how efficient on raising pigs with living bio-bed.

Look at Paul, he's talking to the pig and make friends together!!!

On the 4th day of training, we visited the Living Bio - Beds Pilot Project, and it is true that this model of pig raising is much cheaper to start and besides from pigs, you can also harvest organic fertilizer

( compost ) from the bedding of the pigs after every 3 - 6 months, this technology is also environment friendly and can minimize the pollution.

I am from the Philippines, working at IIRR (International Institute of Rural Reconstruction) Philippine Program at Panay Learning Community in Ivisan, Capiz. We work on different project with various approaches (such as Psychosocial, DRRM and Livelihood), and promote CSA (climate smart agriculture) in crops, aquaculture and livestock. I acquired a lot of learning from this training on living Bio Beds for swine farming in Hanoi. On the 4^th day of training, we visited the living Bio Beds demonstration farm, where they practice the organic pig rising and production. The breeds raised in the farm are native pigs. We observed that they have strictly manage by using foot bath (disinfectants) before entering the farm by the visitor/adapter, the organic feed they used in feeding are made from waste product of soya beans in Tofu production, corn bran and rice residue from rice wine processing. Feed are fermented inside the plastic container for 1 to 3 days depending on the temperature before feeding pigs. It takes 6 months of time for pigs to be ready for market/slaughter with the average weight of 70 to 90 kilos live weight. The advantage of the approach is that the meat produced can generate more profits comparing to the traditional and commercial pigs raise. Taking this opportunity I will make necessary adaptation and bring this technology to the organization and to the small farmers in community where I worked and where there are climate smart agriculture practice and business opportunity.

Junedel U. Buhat

We learned about Theory of change and conducting community research, both qualitative & quantitative basis

These session are highly important for my team in LAO.

Tôi là Phạm Văn Lập, hiện tôi đang làm việc tại Công ty TNHH công nghệ nông nghiệp hữu cơ xứ sở Dế Mèn. Tôi đến hội thảo "Nuôi trồng vì đa dạng sinh học" này với mong muốn được học tập và chia sẻ những kinh nghiệm quý báu về thực hành Nông nghiệp bền vững. Mục tiêu của tôi là lĩnh hội được nhiều nhất có thể những kiến thức từ cuộc hộ thảo này, sau khi trở về tôi sẽ sử dụng nó để áp dụng với khu vực của tôi và lan tỏa đến những người khác nữa.

Hi all, here comes newsletter of Day 1, 2 and 3 in both Vietnamese and English. Enjoy reading!