Education, outreach, and advocacy are closely related concepts, each playing a crucial role in creating positive change within communities. That’s why FAIR Farms is dedicated to all three:

• Education, often in formal settings, equips individuals with knowledge and skills, facilitating growth, development and empowerment.
• Outreach facilitates the dissemination of information and resources to a wider audience, embracing informal education to bridge the gap between research and its beneficiaries.
• Advocacy involves raising awareness and supporting a cause or issue, often with the aim of influencing policies and promoting systemic change. Structural issues like chronic poverty, land loss, and climate change affect Gambian farmers and need concerted advocacy for real change.

Despite their differences, these three elements share a common thread – the power of storytelling. We can only know what we have already seen. In our increasingly global world, sharing personal experiences and stories of challenges and triumphs can inspire understanding and collective action in others.

• Whether it’s the stories of Gambian climate change –
  • Intense heats 5 degrees (F) over 30-year averages, with unpredictable rains and at times severe storms leading to flooding and destruction of homes
  • Inspiring advocacy and climate action both locally and abroad.
• Stories of Gambian culture –
  • Forever room for one more at the communally shared, one-dish lunch
  • Showing alternative ways of being, modes of living prioritizing humanity first
• Or stories of farming resiliency –
  • Ancestral farmlands sold for housing estates means cultivation gets shifted to new and often, smaller plots.
  • Farmers persevere for survival, income, and food security despite untenable pressures

These stories help us understand each other, see common struggles, and look towards new strategies. As a global organization, cultural exchange and celebration is a core value.