Quezon City, Philippines – The new set of AFA Executive Committee officers held an orientation session last May 11-13, 2006 at the AsiaDHRRA/AFA secretariat office at Loyola Heights, Quezon City The meeting was also a team building activity as the officers and staff spent a day shooting the rapids in Pagsanjan falls, a favorite tourist destination, and an overnight stay in a farmers’ village in Mabato,Calamba, Laguna. The meeting was held at the height of storm Caloy, which devastated the Bicol and Visayas region and brought the rainy season in Manila to an earlier start.
“We must work hard so that AFA can be a very strong and a key regional farmers’organization in Asia “, exhorted Chairperson Seo, during the farewell dinner. “It pains me to see that we, farmers, are poor and suffering,†he added, reflecting on his experience in the village , where he and four others slept side by side on mats spread on a floor of a small and modest farmers’ house.
AFA Chairperson Seo, Jung Eui (KAFF Chairperson, Korea), Vice-Chairperson Sudaporn Sittisathapornkul (SorKorPor Chairperson, Thailand), and Treasurer Vicente A. Fabe (PAKISAMA Chairperson, Philippines), together with their respective staff and translators, reviewed basic AFA documents. They noted down points for discussion and decision for the next scheduled AFA ExeCom meeting in June, in Malaysia.
The orientation aimed to develop in the new leaders a deeper appreciation of the history and development of AFA, and a better understanding of its existing organizational documents, programs, projects , plans, and relations with strategic partners, particularly AsiaDHRRA , who currently performs secretariat services for AFA.
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