WWW.WAS.ORG • WORLD AQUACULTURE • MARCH 2014 29 (CONTINUED ON PAGE 30) Aquafilia, Aquafin, Aquaculture Research, AquaTT, Eurofish, Fish Farming International, Fishing Chimes, Growfish (GAIN), Hatchery International, International Aquafeed, IntraFish, Northern Aquaculture, Panorama Acuicola, Panorama da Aquicultura, and World Aquaculture. A very substantial proportion of our income was obtained by individuals who organized fund-raising activities for AwF (Fig. 1). These included abseiling in Northern Ireland; art exhibitions in France; birthday parties in England and Thailand; dragon boat racing, raffles, bar collections, Santa runs and street parties in England; and student activities in Brazil, Canada, the Czech Republic, India, and the USA. Field Activities The work of AwF between 2003 and 2012 was carried out in many countries in Asia-Pacific, Africa and Latin America. Small-scale Aquaculture Projects Small-scale projects funded by AwF are summarized in Table 7. Generally local partners were branches of international NGOs, such as Caritas and World Vision, and local NGOs. Some activities were joint projects with other organizations, including the Asian Institute of Technology and the WorldFish Center. Full details of all AwF projects can be found on its website (AwF 2013a); space limitations permit me only to provide a few details about three selected projects in India, Malawi and Nepal. INDIA: Don Bosco Bishramganj projects These projects were instigated by one of our founding members (and later an AwF Chairman), the late M. C. Nandeesha (Fig. 2), who had a special relationship with St. Xavier’s Bishramganj Vocational Training Centre (Don Bosco Centre). The original project (Phase 1) concerned the integration of aquaculture in watershed management programs to help very poor and marginal farmers that were cultivating rice, vegetables, potatoes and pineapples. All involved were from tribes such as the Debbarma, Riangs, Jamatia, Tripuri, Notia and Garos. Our aim was to improve their income and family nutrition and to create employment opportunities. At first, 30 poor families were chosen to work on this project; in each case both husband and wife were trained in fish culture over two days in a training center. Trained farmers then utilized their knowledge to renovate their own ponds, which had been used for water storage, wild fish capture and in FIGURE 2. Training session in India held by an AwF Chairman, the late Professor M.C. Nandeesha (far left) (Photo: M.C. Nandeesha). FIGURE 3. Aquaculture without Frontiers activities in Tripura, India. (a) The ‘South Place Marlow Fish Hatchery’. (b, c) Project beneficiaries (Photos: M.C. Nandeesha). (a) (b) (c)
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjExNDY=