Helping Place Interns in Seed Projects

We have assisted some twenty-five of our interns to travel to work and volunteer in seed saving projects in:

  • India (3 interns, 2 projects)
  • Solomon Islands (3 interns, 1 project)
  • Brazil (1 intern, 1 project)
  • Ecuador (5 interns, 3 projects)
  • Japan (6 interns, several projects)
  • East Timor (4 interns, several projects)
  • Cuba (1 intern, 1 project)
  • Malawi (1 intern, 1 project)
  • South Korea (2 interns, 1 project)
  • Chile (1 intern, 1 project)
  • The Gambia & Senegal (1 intern, 1 large project).

Channeling Small Grants to Seed Projects

Between 2002 and 2005 Seed Savers’ Network channelled small grants of AUD $1,000 to $5,000 to support seed saving projects in:

  • Australia (publishing Alice Springs Garden Companion, creating resources for Local Seed Networks, book parcels to overseas projects, school gardens book production)
  • Solomon Islands (Melanesian Farmer First Network – meeting of farmers from other Melanesian countries and visit of spice farms in Vanuatu; Planting Material Network – provide seed banking items and training on traditional food to the island of Tikopia; seed training for staff; production of Community Seed Saving book)
  • Bougainville, Papua New Guinea (Paru Paru Education Centre, seed saving project)
  • Bulgaria (The Community Genetic Resources Center, heritage varieties of fruits orchard)
  • Italy (Civilta Contadina, historical orchard near Cesena)
  • Cambodia (Dept of Women’s Affairs, Pursat for seed saving training materials)
  • Indonesia (IDEP in Bali for educational materials on seed saving)
  • India (seed saving projects, establishing community seed banks, training community seed bank worker in states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Ladakh and Tibetan refugee settlement)
  • Afghanistan (Faculty of Agriculture, Herat University for labels for fruit trees, seed saving equipment)
  • Cuba (for adaptation of Spanish translation of Seed Savers’ Handbook to Cuban conditions)
  • Ecuador (Red de Semillas to expand their national seed network)
  • Brazil (training on Seeds for Life project with former intern, Julia Desbrosses)
  • Argentina (Italian intern to travel there and train Salvadores de Semillas and expand this seed network).

Supporting Seed Saving Globally

Seedsavers principals and funders Jude and Michel Fanton know the value of peasant and tribal contribution to biodiversity and local culture: each year they embark on Seed Solidarity Tours to set up community seed exchanges and networks, give keynotes, visit existing seed projects and generally lend a hand, partnering seed organisations to gain more national and local public attention. They often return to these countries to follow up on the progress of the various organisations where they always find new ideas and inspiration to share with other local networks.
Here are those countries, nations and tribal areas.


Training Interns:

At our Seed Centre in Byron Bay, Australia we have trained seventy-two interns for periods of one week to six months from these countries:

  • Australia (21 from 1997 to 2009 – Tony Jansen, Emma Stone, Nicole Kilburn, Bradley Costigan, Nikki Warwick, Julia Desbrosses, Robyn Parker, Steve Casasola, Amy Glastonbury, Andy Macintosh, Holly Shiach, Cheze Darville, Karen Hall, Peter Bakos, Amber Tucker, Paul Schmidt, Joel Dunn, Gemma Rubina, James Sprunt, Tom Duncan, Marian Warren, plus 214 one-week course students from 1997 to 2005)
  • Solomon Islands (7 – Gwendolyn Pitavavani, Sarah Osiabu, Roselyn Kabu, Mary Timothy, Inia Barry, Johnson Ladota, Lionel Maeliu)
  • Papua New Guinea (1 – Angeline Simon)
  • UK (6 – Susie Wren, Mary Whiting, Ben Larke, Julia Frankel, Rachael Lamb, Jack Dunwell)
  • USA (8 – Matt Brown, Pat Lilja, Brian Shillinglaw, Leyla Cabugos, Ann Sjostrom, Sunny Johnson, Jeannette Vinet, Luke Garrison)
  • Italy (1 – Dr Saviana Parodi)
  • Germany (3 – Jonas, Yan Tetzel, Michael)
  • South Africa (2 – Max van Ginkel and Mariana Bomberg)
  • Japan (12 – Masanori, Masami Sakaban, Megumu Ogata, Midori, Shiinji Kuno, Shizuka Komuro, Ai Morikawa, Kaori Odeta, Mariko Hamaguchi, Sho, Yuki, Taiji Shimowatari)
  • South Korea (2 – Lee and Cho from Poolmoo School)
  • Cambodia (1 – Kosal Neary)
  • East Timor (3 – Ego Lemos, Atai Ximenes, Betty dos Reis)
  • Puerto Rico (1 – Mara Nieves)
  • Argentina (1 – Pablo Ermini)
  • Austria (1 – Andreas Schindler)
  • Portugal (1 Silvia da Floresta)
  • Chile (1 Carmen Abuhadba)

In Summary

  • Worked on, documented and researched seed saving in forty-four countries
  • Trained seventy-two interns from seventeen of those countries
  • Helped twenty-seven interns to work on seed saving projects in eleven of those countries
  • Channelled small grants to thirty-five food biodiversity projects around the globe.
  • Filmed in thirty-two countries and produced a one hour documentary, “Our Seeds”, for the people of Melanesia
  • Donated 1000 copies of “Our Seeds” to people and projects around the world
  • Filmed “Our Roots” in Vanuatu, on how to re-diversify root crops through reproduction with seeds.
  • Made clips and uploaded them to Seedsavers Youtube Channel as a filmic blog on food production and distribution in eleven countries.

Contact Us with any enquiries michel@seedsavers.net

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