SEACON

SEACON, the Southeast Council for Food Security and Fair Trade, was our next volunteer destination. While still tired from the travelling in Indonesia, we headed out on Wednesday to learn the ropes at our new NGO. After a long commute to a suburb-turned-city on the outskirts of KL, we met Annie at the above-ground train station who took us to the office. While much smaller than we expected (SEACON's website is quite impressive), we learned that they influence the agendas of a number (around 30) smaller non-governmental and civil society organizations in the countries they represent. They oversee food security and free trade issues on behalf of small-scale farmers in seven SE Asia countries (Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam), and set regional initiatives to improve the market power of their constituents, who desperately need advocates in this increasingly globalized world. Many of these farmers continue to farm using the same methods they've used for decades, but in the last five years the industry has shifted substantially toward favoring big-industry farmes. The smaller farmers thus experience the weight of the international trade regime pressing down on them, but lack the skills and the understanding to organize against it or adapt. Organizations like SEACON see it as their mission to educate, mobilize and advocate on behalf of these farmers in the face of such large forces.

Annie, our boss and confidant at SEACON, has a special place in her heart for this population, as her extended family are small-scale farmers in East Malaysia who she visited on weekends and holidays when she was young. We enjoyed hearing her stories about how the village used to share a generator that would operate for four hours a day (the villge only received real electricity 3-4 years ago), and about some of the special traditions the villagers shared at weddings, funerals, and summer-festivals where they host surrounding villages and friends. If you ever visit her village during a particular day in June, the whole village (around 300 families) will take turns feeding you, entertaining you, and serving you home-made alcoholic beverages.

Annie herself is quite unique. She is a bubbly and lively Malay woman and proud alumni of the University of Wisconsin. She is married to Helmut, an Austrian computer-engineer who works on electronic financial debit-card systems. (Helmut took care of all the highway tolls with a special electronic device developed by his company...it automatically deducts tolls from a pre-paid card that also works on the train system, the monorail, etc.)

Upon arrival, Annie handed us a stack of papers relating to the right to food, and asked us to go to work. Our mission is to help her develop a Regional Briefing Paper on the Right to Food that will go out to all of SEACON's partners. A daunting task, but fortunately I am well-prepared...

...unfortunately my stomach wasn't, as I went home sick the first day at SEACON, and stayed in bed the next. It was a slight obstacle in our plan to bring the realization of the right to food to SE Asia in a matter of a week, but only a setback. To incrase our odds of meeting the high goals we had set for ourself, we rearranged our agenda to stay an extra two days.