SEALNet Project Vietnam: Organic Farming & Food Safety

SEALNet Project Vietnam 2020 Lam Dong:

Organic Farming & Food Safety

About PV20LD:

PV20LD is a year-long program that focuses on empowering ethnic minority youths in Lam Dong, Vietnam, with the skills and knowledge to engage in cleaner and more efficient farming methods by cultivating a cross-cultural community of servant leaders.

About SEALNet:

Southeast Asian Service Leadership Network (SEALNet) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organisation founded in 2004 by a group of Southeast Asian friends in Stanford striving for the betterness of the region via youth empowerment. Its mission is to create sustainable change in Southeast Asia by fostering service in and promoting the spirit of service leadership among Southeast Asian communities. Now, the organisation has started more than 60 projects in all 10 Southeast Asian countries.

What are we addressing?

• In a public opinion study, 86% of Vietnamese cited food safety problems as one of their top concerns
• There is an average of 168 food poisoning cases in Vietnam annually
• 85% of vegetable growers use pesticide, 43% use twice the recommended amount of pesticide, leading to health risk (Nguyen, 2019)

Our Approach

1. Empowering our youth mentees from various countries across the world to become servant leaders and equip them with (a) leadership skills and tools for youth development and project management and, (b) knowledge of organic farming methods. We do this using a unique Interactive Virtual Program and mentorship. This allows us to overcome the limitations of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as connect to a larger group of youths from the region.

2. Empowering the minority youths in Lam Dong Province and inculcating the 'organic mindset' within the community by equipping villagers with organic farming methods that will encourage cleaner and healthier vegetable production and consumption in the village. This will be part of the on-the-ground phase with multiple farming workshops by project mentors and mentees.

PV20LĐ has chosen Ma Danh village, Don Duong district, Lam Dong province to be the agent of change. The village is amongst the many ethnic-based agricultural communes that are struggling to both satisfy the market productivity for a stable income and maintain the quality of the products.

Where will my contribution go?

Contributions will go into the farming logistics for the on-ground phase, as well as equipping farmers with materials for their farming projects.