Countries apart but working together
How a Japanese volunteer is helping Sri Lankan communities to face climate shocks
Shoko Kudomi, 28, from Aichi, Japan started her career as a web designer, but now feels at home on farms across Badulla, Sri Lanka. She’s using her skills to help farmers to have regular access to food, incomes and to become more resilient to a changing climate.
As a volunteer with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for the Provincial Department of Agriculture in Badulla she will spend 2 years supporting World Food Programme projects to improve household water harvest systems. The Provincial Department of Agriculture recognized Shoko’s interest in home and organic gardening, so as part of a collaboration with WFP and JICA, they assigned her to work with families to protect home gardens from dry spells which often result in drought.
Improved water supply reduce the distance of people must walk — sometimes as far as 3 km — to source their household water supplies. With better access to water, families area able to increase their consumption of healthy foods like vegetables and to increase household income through the sale of surplus produce.
“My role entailed monitoring the progress of 20 households to provide support through community development advice, while addressing their issues and concerns. The household water harvesting systems provided by WFP and Korean International Cooperation Agency ( KOICA) really improves the lives of families,” said Shoko. “I also got the opportunity to meet many families and understand their lives — this is knowledge I can take back to my country. ”
“Somawathi (41) is one of 35 people in the district who have been given a 5,000 litre rainwater harvesting tank for household use. She is working as an agricultural laborer, but it is not easy because she is the only parent of two school going children. Having a water tank reduces gives her more time to improve her income through sales from her home garden while also spending less time fetching water, which is 1 km away. Now she earns around LKR 3,500 (USD 23) for a month selling the produce from her garden at the market,” said Shoko on one of her household visits to Somawathi.
“I am getting enough water to cultivate. Thanks to WFP now I have a rainwater harvesting tank and I was trained on doing proper home gardening. I am a daily waged laborer but after WFP’s help, I am earning more money by selling the produce from my home garden. I grow vegetables and chili peppers.”
A former web designer and a graduate of Kobe University (Rokkodai-cho, Japan) with a degree in intercultural studies, Shoko said she admires the self-resilience of families in Badulla. Moving from her role of web designer to a community developer, she said that she wanted to use her talents and experiences to help communities. For her, volunteering is about the ability to dedicating time to support others. “I have been privileged to visit groups of farmers and to learn about the positive influence that WFP has made in developing their communities, ” said Shoko. Through the project, she could learn a lot and said she valued this opportunity. She hopes to give back to Sri Lankan society during her two-year stay in Badulla.
WFP’s food-assistance-for-assets (FFA) creation activities with the Government of Sri Lanka help protect people from the impact of climate related shocks, building reliance at household and community level. Community-based resilience building projects were implemented from May to November 2017 in 13 out of 25 districts of Sri Lanka. The activities focused on the most vulnerable households in village clusters that were severely affected by the 2016/17 drought — the worst in 40 years. Households headed by women and those with disabled or elderly persons were prioritized.
Learn more about WFP’s work in Sri Lanka.
