Dear valuable Reader,

after many outpost trainings with farmers in the villages in the past 2 years, HELOG has now for the first time after the pandemic held a workshop where farmers, trainers and representatives of the aid organizations and local politicians were invited. The event took place in the recently renovated training buildings of MedLife – HELOG Academy in Tomato Camp north of Gbarnga. Express praise was expressed by the participants for the renovated training facilities and HELOG in particular was asked to further expand them.

The goal of this level II course is to:

1. Provide advanced training in power tiller operation,
2. Prepared farmers to contact routine power to the maintenance and repairs. This practically field and workshop based training is linked to MedLife Liberia and HELOG Academy program to help farmers transition from subsistence to commercial farming aimed  at promoting food security in West Africa.

This training consisted of five modules

Module 1:  Managing commercial agriculture is a business enterprise

module 2: Parts of the power and their uses.

Module 3:  How to operate the power tiller

module 4:  Problem shooting guide for field repairs

Module 5: How to maintain, repair and service the power tiller

Learning approach:  ‚Learning by doing‘

Follow up continuous learning. Integrating training and production means that farmers will continue learning to add value, maintain quality standards and enabled commercial rice production in West Africa.

We at HELOG believe that using machines to farm is critical to Pioneer in business and human development through self-reliance to achieve food security in a sustainable way.

 

Dear valuable Reader,

despite the significant restrictions imposed by Corona, there is also good news from our operations in Liberia. Our organization continues to be heavily involved in the GIZ/MedLife Covid-19 program with consulting services and hands-on training. A comprehensive but workable approach has been established and much progress has already been made in implementation. Training and awareness campaigns are in full swing. HELOG Academy contributes significantly to this success with consulting but also with logistic services and support of the overall organization.
Furthermore, the training program for rice farmers has started successfully and especially in the remote areas we have already been able to implement many of the planned measures. We would like to refer you to the Medlife website for further information. https://www.medlife-liberia.com

The new training center in Tomato Camp, Gbanga Region, we already reported about, has also started its operation although some work on the equipment and installation is still necessary.
HELOG Academy e.V. has provided the entire electrical installation, the building paints as well as a powerful water supply by means of a solar powered water pump incl. reservoir.

Stay healthy, we are looking forward to provide you with news soon.

Dear valuable Reader,

we have some news for you:

 Orientation course for Master Trainer

In preparation for the training project for MedLife Ltd. in rural areas, see Flashlight number 17, „Helog Academy“ has held an orientation course for Master Trainers at its training center in Schiefflien as well as in the newly built farm building in Tomato Camp. Eleven participants from the Gbanga region received an introduction to the goals of MedLife, the importance of growing rice efficiently with modern machinery and the planning for future training. The training concept envisages that most of the training measures will be carried out on site at the farmers. A duration of two years is planned. Over this period, a total of around 200 farmers are to be trained in soil cultivation machines, rice planting and harvesting machines. This is a develoPPP project which is financed in equal parts by MedLife Ltd. and GIZ.

 

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New building for training and maintenance

The new farm building of MedLife Ltd. will be finished soon. This building will house a meeting room, a large workshop, a threshing hall, rooms for spare parts and equipment, an office, and modern sanitary facilities for visitors, course participants and employees. It is important for Helog to have a large workshop where all the technical equipment can be stored and where the training of the farmers on the machines and technical equipment can be carried out optimally. The start of the training course is planned for April. By then the building should be completely finished. Only the solar pump water supply will be completed in May, because the well has to be built before. The water supply is planned for a large volume (3000 ltr./day) to supply the company building, water for the nursery and drinking water for the local population. The entire sanitary facilities as well as the solar pump system were supplied by Helog and will be installed by Helog technicians. Unfortunately, the corona situation makes this task very difficult for us. But we are optimistic and hope that we will be able to do it in time with a lot of improvisation talent.

 

 

Dear valuable Reader ,

again we have more news for you:

Concept Extension of HELOG Academy – Outpost Training Solutions

Because of the prevailing tense economic situation in Liberia and the resulting poverty, it is even becoming increasingly difficult for students to take part in our training programs at our school in Schiefflien. This is as a result of distance and commutation cost in the country where students are not given special preferences in public transports. If the transport costs are too high, the parents or students can no longer afford the costs to and from a point.

However, this will not prevent HELOG ACADEMY LIBERIA from continuing our recruitment process of our interested candidates from the immediate areas where the anxiety for vocational education is felt.

It will interest you as our valued readers to know that we are increasingly being asked to offer our courses and training expertise also in the rural areas. For HELOG it is a dream comes true as people in rural areas also need education and should be given the right to qualitative and standardized education in order to meet today’s competing markets. HELOG is always ready to offer those young people and adults irrespective of gender, the opportunity to receive modern technical trainings with standard procedures, for efficient service provision.

Therefore we decided to take up the concept of „Mobile Vocational Training“ which we have been considering years ago, and re- develop it according to the environment. Curricula’s adapted to the concept and revised training modules must be reconsidered to meet the skill level in those areas.

Likewise, of course, mobility must be created in order to achieve this goal. We will need a small van to carry the necessary training material, workbenches, technical equipment, tools, etc. on site.
It is a new challenge for us, especially raising the funds for this vehicle. However the situation does not leave many options.

We will gladly keep you posted.

Graduation Ceremony Dear  valuable Reader, we wish you to know the latest news from Liberia: Graduation ceremony for the course for the maintenance engineer 2018/2019     Of the original 22 students who started this course, eleven students successfully completed the course and received their long-awaited certificates in a small celebration. For organizational reasons, this had to be done two actions because some were already in a job and not all were available at the same time. We are pleased that almost all students with a degree have been hired. The effort has already paid off. In a country with a youth unemployment rate of 80%, this is certainly an exemplary achievement. Unfortunately, a downer is the high number of people who have finished the course prematurely. This seems completely incomprehensible to us despite the good job prospects. Whether such a course, which is strongly invested in the dual system, is started again is currently open. At the same time, we would like to mention that the modular training concept has been absolutely successful, as we have adapted it to the local conditions. Most students are not able to afford paying low school fees and HELOG Academy is again unable to fully finance these courses themselves. We deeply regret that.