This week revolved around the photovoice training in My Loi and the collection of the first questionnaire data.
Despite the efforts over the previous couple of weeks, there was still plenty to get done on Monday for the training – updating questionnaires with minor last-minute changes and localisation adjustments not the least of it. In the afternoon, we dropped the equipment – cameras, tablets, stationery, pens, snacks - at the ICRAF office ready for travel the next morning.
The next day, a blindingly hot Tuesday morning in Hanoi (we hit 39C today and look set to go into the 40s over the weekend), seven of us piled into the ICRAF jeep and set off on the 8-hour trip to Ha Tinh province. It turns out that the back seats of a Ford seven-seater are made for people with short legs or shorter journeys. My knees were happy when we finally climbed out in Ky Anh town, 20km from My Loi climate-smart village.
Of course, we weren’t all there for the photovoice training – the trip doubled up as an information gathering trip for a colleague from CIAT and a visiting student from the US, and an information delivery trip for some colleagues from ICRAF.
Another early start on Wednesday had us in My Loi for just before seven. There were already some participants there and as we unpacked the gear and lined up the various materials for the day, the rest of the crew arrived. We got started just before 8. That put our schedule out of whack a little bit but we had planned a removable activity and as it transpired that’s what we did.
No need to go through the whole schedule here – suffice to say the day went well and before we left for lunch all the participants had practiced taking a variety of shots with their new devices and had also brainstormed some of the local issues that they felt would be appropriate to highlight while they have the cameras.
They'd also filled in the first set of questionnaires that I need for the thesis. These won't make full sense until we get follow-up data in a few weeks but an initial look points to a strong feeling that farmers should be makers and distributors of knowledge alongside a fairly consistent trend that they are not always the most confident of communicators, even when willing. If this turns out to be the case it is hopefully a shortfall that the photovoice process can help to bridge.
Acknowledgements:
Trung (IRRI), Ha My (ICRAF), and Hoa (Farmers' Union) did a great job in delivering the training in Vietnamese - wouldn't have happened without them!