AFARI Board Member Anne Dance is heading to Cameroon to assist a rural leaders training program there, set up along the lines of the Asian Rural Institute (ARI) in Japan.


For more information, please see the article "Cameroon Bound" from the Port Stanley News.

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ARI was featured in an article about "Cultivating Leadership" in the 2008 Global Ministries Newsletter on Women and Girls.

The full article is available in this PDF; the text of the article follows.

Raising livestock, growing corn, feeding her family. Nozuko Toli’s aspirations aren’t lofty, but they are important, especially in her village, Amalinda, in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. Here, unemployment hovers around 80 percent. Toli, 28,
from the Kei Region of the United Congregational Church of Southern Africa, is like many others in her area – farmers who, without additional work, cannot afford seed and fertilizers. Furthermore, the pesticides sold locally are harmful to the community and the very environment it depends on for its sustenance.

Today, however, Toli’s outlook is brighter due to the Asian Rural Institute (ARI), a 15-acre working farm in northern Japan. Toli is part of ARI’s nine-month training program that educates rural community leaders in sustainable organic agriculture techniques, leadership, and community development. Global Ministries, through One Great Hour of Sharing, provides financial assistance to ARI and this year’s grant is paying for Toli’s studies.

ARI’s philosophy and mission is “to build an environmentally healthy, just, and peaceful world, in which each person can live to his or her fullest potential. This mission is rooted in the love of Jesus Christ.” ARI has trained more than one thousand people since it was founded in 1973, through support from many Christian organizations.

When Toli’s ARI training is finished, she will return home able to help her community grow crops organically, using the resources available in the area while preserving the environment. By sharing her knowledge with others around her and through her church, Toli will be able to touch many lives by helping to
put food in many stomachs.

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