Danica Beaulac taking some notes during her trip to Ethiopia last summer. (submitted photo/Danica Beaulac)

By Nigel Maxwell

Sharing knowledge

P.A. teacher gets up close look at third world farming practices

Nov 7, 2019 | 1:55 PM

Danica Beaulac, a Grade 1 teacher at St. Anne school spent part of her summer in Ethiopia, and is now using the information she learned in her classroom.

Beaulac was part of an International Food Security Learning Tour for Educators, organized by Canadian Foodgrains Bank, a partnership of 15 church and church agencies working together to end global hunger. Beaulac, who previously travelled to Tanzania in 2011, said she saw poverty before but added she was still amazed how happy the people were.

“Then to see the contrast of how happy they are like compared to us here who have much better living conditions and tend to worry about a lot of little things,” she explained. “They are very content with their way of life and they are happy for any kind of help they get”

Two days were spent by the group with communities learning about conservation agriculture, an approach to farming that uses minimal soil disturbance, crop rotations, and cover crops to improve long-term soil health and produce greater yields.

Beaulac on a hike, as the group checks out a gravity fed water project that serves seven communities. (submitted photo/Danica Beaulac)

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For Beaulac, one of her biggest takeaways from the trip was witnessing how the community members rally around each other, and explained it’s really important for them to help one another so that when they are in need, someone else will help them. One of the stops for the learning tour was a visit to a community that received food in exchange for planting trees on degraded lands, after a crop failure resulted in a shortage of food.

“In Saskatchewan we do see that [community support] in small towns which is really nice and I love that feeling, but it just made me think how individualist we are here sometimes,” she said. She added one of her goals now was to create that same community feeling in her own classroom, and show the kids how they can help each other learn and grow.

Foodgrains Bank learning tours provide educators with firsthand knowledge of concepts like global citizenship, sustainability, and poverty. This enables them to be better equipped to lead discussions and provide information about these important topics to their students. Beaulac said moving forward she already had several ideas how she could she could share what she learned.

“In the Catholic School Division, we have service projects so I’m planning on using that with my kids to help them learn about local farmers and then see the contrast with farmers across the world,” she said.

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nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell