Project News

On the 4th of July, 2011, the second group of students of Tay Bac University (TBU) arrived in Dien Bien as SUSFORM-NOW's Monitoring Volunteers (MV) following an agreement between SUSFORM-NOW and TBU.

In the morning of the next day, seven students were guided to the pilot sites by project and district staff. They shall continue what the previous group conducted: To observe the life of the villagers and their field activities associated with the project. Their work will become important as the project's livelihood improvement activities start in August. Their reports can provide a clearer picture of the endogenous changes of the villagers not accessible by the outside Project Management Unit (PMU). The students will stay at the houses of village heads for five months, giving them an advantage to join any village meetings. Besides, this stay will provide them with a chance to enrich their academic background. Thus, all of them looked really eager with their first experience involved in the project of a major organization like JICA.

In summary, it is certain that this monitoring activity is beneficial to both sides: SUSFORM-NOW and the students. In addition, through the collaboration between SUSFORM-NOW and TBU, the capacity of local human resources is envisaged to be improved.

Orientation meeting for monitoring volunteers