The project begins..

Hi all,
I've been sending emails to people to keep them posted about what has been happening but I've not been blogging..my schedule is really really tight..I thought of blogging about the places that I've been to in Hong Kong but I'm actually more excited about this project...

Today, after a 3 hours flight from Hong Kong to KL, 2 hrs transit in KL to catch a flight to Medan, 3 hrs transit in Medan to catch a flight to Acheh, I safely arrived at about 9.00pm...
Yes, I'm tired. The program has been very drilling so far. BUT it's just great. If anybody were to ask me about the program, I only have good things to say about it. These people at Global Institute of Tomorrow (GIFT) is a bunch of amazing people with a determination to bring about positive changes.

I've learnt so much the past couple of days.. met with some very inspiring people and realized how little I knew about the things going on around the world. I mean, I am a working mother who is satisfied with the way things are --- I don't think about things like globalization and it's effects..what's happening in China and India...CSR vs social entrepeneurship.. but if I don't learn about these things I will be left behind.

Anyway, here I am in Acheh. I've a big responsibility. The group has been divided into 4 teams - Finance, Governance, Community and Production and for God knows why, I've been elected to lead the Community team. In my team I have Cindy (Australian), Becky (China) and Xiau Juan (also from China).

The project?
The cocoa producing communities of Acheh have volatile incomes and lack reliable access to credit facilities. This traps them in a cycle of poverty and dependency. The participants of the Global Young Leaders (YLP) program has been given the task to create a more sustainable model for cocoa farmers to relaize greater economic benefits for their efforts. Right now, the farmers do not realize that they could really make a business out of their cocoa. So,they kept on producing cocoas of bad quality, will get sold at a cheaper price and won't be able to be exported to the outside world. So, we need to help them out.

We've got a busy day tomorrow. At 8am all 20 of us would be taking a 2 hours journey to the cocoa farm. This is for us to see the production of cocoa. Apparently it is the harvesting season now so I guess this would be interesting to see. After that we would be brought to the cocoa collection centre in Sigli to meet the farmers so that we can learn more about their challenges and concerns. We would be meeting about 5 farmers from Aceh Utara (they need to take a 12 hrs drive to come to Banda Acheh) and 5 farmers from the Pidie District. The 3rd stop would be exciting I think. We've been invited to the Bupati's (like Penghulu) house. We would only be back to the hotel at about 8pm.

We all don't have much time actually. We need to do the groundwork on the next couple of days and after that consolidate all the information for the business plan. On Thursday we will be flying to Medan and on Friday present the proposal in a conference held at JW Marriot Hotel, Medan. I've been told that about 100 people will attend the conference -- UNDP, APED, local authorities, people from Cadbury, cocoa exporters and Body Shop.

Okay, I'm gonna catch some sleep peeps. Hopefully, I won't be too tired to blog tomorrow.