The Food Hero campaign of the Asia-Pacific Farmers’ Program was launched by NAMAC during the opening of “International Training on Upscaling Shearing for Sheep Wool Quality Improvement” on 29 June 2020 in Dundgobi province, Mongolia. The event was organized by the EU-funded SECIM-II project implemented by UNIDO.
The Food Hero campaign is an initiative of the Asia-Pacific Farmers’ Program regional implementing agency AFA-LVC. The campaign aims to promote the important role of farmers in providing healthy food amid all the challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, it also aims to help farmers’ organizations by contracting them for the production of face masks which will be used for the campaign.
The National Association of Mongolian Agricultural Cooperatives (NAMAC) secretariat reached out to its member FOs to produce “Food Hero” face masks and among their members, the Darkhan noos cooperative from Darkhan-Uul province, Mongolia has been selected to produce the masks.
The cooperative’s membership comprises mainly of women (88.2%) and the cooperative’s main business activity is felt craft. They used to produce 80 different types of products from felt and sold them mainly to tourists. However, due to COVID-19 and the lockdown that ensued, the cooperative had no sales at all for months. They are currently facing the challenge of how to sustain the cooperative. Thus, producing masks can be a new source of livelihood for the cooperative’s members. It can be profitable because wearing masks is required in “the new normal” way of living in many countries that are still battling the spread of COVID-19. The Darkhan noos cooperative produced 400 pieces of Food Hero masks in time for the opening of the training which was participated by NAMAC.
With the participation of national and local government officials as well as the resident representative of the UN in Mongolia in the opening program, it provided a good opportunity to launch the campaign to increase awareness among policymakers and donors. NAMAC distributed the masks to its members, partners, media, and other people.
NAMAC is a member of the Asian Farmers’ Association for Sustainable Rural Development (AFA) since 2013 and is one of the farmers’ organizations under the IFAD-funded Asia-Pacific Farmers’ Program.
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