Benjamin Rao. Photo: CWS
Benjamin Rao is an Ag Extension Instructor in Noebeba sub-district in West Timor – an area that is highly food insecure, partly because of limited access to water. Mr. Rao has been living on Oebaki village with his wife and children for just over a decade and, in recent years, he has been involved in the CWS-led Timor Zero Hunger project because, he says, “As an agricultural worker in Noebeba, I have a responsibility to help families farm better, and partnering with CWS gives me more of a chance to do this.”
Benjamin’s efforts to develop the farmer groups he is supporting are hampered by severe water shortages, but, he says, ”With recent CWS help in protecting our fresh water springs we are overcoming this problem”; and, proudly, he adds, “In the last two years, people here, including myself, have learned a lot of new things that help us in other ways to use our scarce water responsibly. For example, families now use A-frames for planting vegetables and this technique saves us water … and, even better, we grow a lot more vegetables. So besides learning as a community member and family man, I am also learning more about animal husbandry and vaccinations than I knew from my basic government education. So, in the future, even when CWS is not directly supporting the villages in Noebeba, I will continue where CWS has left off and keep helping farmers groups, and all our families, here.”