Livestock Feeding and Feed Production

• Soil analysis of 7 fields in 4 villages was realized in the scope of feed plantation demonstration.
• As demonstrative studies 695 kg of sainfoin seeds were distributed to 6 breeders in Ardahan, Damal, and Hanak. Trainings were given to the breeders on feed plantation. (This fall the feed plants took root, will be harvested 2005 summer.)
• 25.000 m2 of field of two farmers were planted with corn seeds in Posof, as demonstrative studies. However due to hail, all crops were damaged and no out put was realized.

Establishment and/ or Organizing of Cooperatives

• Damal Cooperative was established. New members are being registered.

Establishment of Milk Collection Centers  

• Repairing of premises, where milk collection centre is going to be established were completed by Damal District Governor.
• Business plans for three milk collection centers on the basis of two scenarios were prepared and forwarded to BTC for approval.

Dissemination of Information  

• A livestock symposium was organized in Ardahan with the participation of 6 experts, province level public institution directors and 80 breeders.
• 2271 people received training on various subjects concerning livestock practice. Trainings included subjects such as artificial insemination, calf care and calf feedings, tits care, hygienic milking, combating animal diseases, herd management, shelter hygiene, combating parasites and brucellosis as well as feed digestion and feed plant cultivation.
• Each being 1500, 2 different information leaflets on livestock practice were published. A total of 3000 leaflets dealing with livestock were distributed.

AGRICULTURAL ACTIVITIES

The agricultural activities, mainly consisting of vegetable and fruit culture, are being made in 19 villages of Posof. A series of activities aiming to encourage the organic fruit culture, to improve the vegetable culture and to integrate the aromatic plants to the economy were realized. These activities can be listed as follows:

Orchard Maintenance

• Pawlonia trees were distributed to 18 households.
• 3000 packs of vegetable seeds were distributed to 515 households, in order to convince beneficiaries that the vegetables can be grown in the region. (Encouragement)
• Demonstrative applications were made on vegetable growing (e.g. Seed bed preparation, seed plantation, sapling growing, vegetable orchard preparations, sapling care, top cutting, arm cleaning, harvesting). 515 households which obtained seeds benefited from these demonstrative applications.
• 18 greenhouses were visited 39 times and technical assistance was rendered to owners.
• A total of 11 orchards in 9 villages were visited. Their problems were identified. Advices were given to farmers on various subjects concerning fruit orchard maintenance. (e.g. organic fertilizers, pruning, soil preparation, sapling plantation, shaping saplings, inoculation, and sapling cultivation.) Applications on above mentioned subject were realized with the participation of beneficiaries.

  Capacity Building of Posof Cooperative

• Posof Cooperative amended its statute as to include whole project villages.
• 29 people from project villagers registered with the Cooperative.
• 1500 USD was provided for operation capital and bureaucratic expenses related with production permits.
• 7 capacity building sessions for Cooperative management was organized. Technical assistance provided on the management of cooperative, bureaucratic and legal procedures. Related bodies in the Agriculture Directorate participated in the sessions.

A bee-keeping training project was prepared in partnership with the Posof Cooperative. The Project was awarded a grant by the EU. The President of Board of Director of Posof Cooperative was determined as the field coordinator of the Project by IBC.

ARDAHAN PROVINCE POSOF COUNTY BEE-KEPING TRAININGS PROJECT

Another project implemented by IBC in Ardahan is EU funded Ardahan Province Posof County Bee-keeping Trainings Project. This project was started to be implemented by International Blue Crescent Humanitarian Relief and Development Foundation with the partnership of Posof County Agricultural Development Cooperative and has been successfully completed.

In the scope of the project, Ardahan Province Agricultural Directorate has been the supporting institution. The specific objective of the project is the quality building of 75 unemployed (especially women, disabled, young) by bee-keeping trainings and the encouragement entrepreneurship. The target group of the project is the unemployed registered to ISKUR (Employment Foundation), the young, the women, the disabled who would be able to carry on the bee-keeping activities, the ex-sentenced and all the other unemployed.

The bee-keeping potential of Posof is very high because of the natural environment. It is very important to make bee-keeping become widespread in the region since it is a very profitable job in Posof, which has been declared as Caucasus Bee Race Central Region.

In the scope of these information and the project, 3 training programmes, 15 days-75 hours each, were realized in contribution with Ardahan Province Agriculture Directorate Bee-keeping Production Station and each participant were given a certificate. Also each participant was paid 8 Euros for each day they have participated and thus 8964 Euros were paid to 75 participants in total. Posof Sub-governorship has given great support to the project and has awarded the participants with various bee-keeping equipments. The ending ceremony was as splendid as the opening ceremony. The high-ranking public officers and administrators and hundreds of villagers participated to the ceremony. The positive comments in the post-training evaluation meetings and the great increase in the demand for bee-keeping were important indicators of the success of the project implemented by IBC.

ARDAHAN PROVINCE REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH PROJECT

EU funded Ardahan Province Reproductive Health Project is, for the time being, the last project that IBC has been implementing in Ardahan. Among many specific objectives, the project aims to create an informed society in Ardahan about to safe motherhood, family planning, STI/HIV/AIDS as well as early diagnosis of breast and cervical cancer, disseminate best practices and increase access to related health services.

The project's priority target group is women and men, who are between the ages 15-49 and who live in rural settlements in Ardahan, especially in places where access to health services are low. Secondary target group of the project is the people living in Ardahan, who are between 15-49 years. The project is being implemented in Ardahan Province centre and 100 rural settlements in a project period of 16 months. The main activities include trainings, consultancy services and social marketing campaign and the specific objectives are as follows:

Safe motherhood

• By means of giving trainings about safe motherhood to 15-49 aged 6000 women and 4000 men, including influential family members and community leaders, who live in rural settlements that are especially poor in accessing health services
• to increase access to related health services,
• to decrease complications during pregnancy, ante-natal and post-natal periods
• to decrease the number of women receiving care under unhealthy conditions during pregnancy, ante-natal and post-natal periods

Family planning

• By means of giving training about family planning to 15-49 aged 6000 women and 4000 men, including influential family members and community leaders, who live in rural settlements that are especially poor in accessing health services
• to increase utilization of family planning methods,
• to increase access to related health services,
• to ensure decrease in unplanned and unwanted pregnancy ratios,
to prevent finalization of pregnancies under unhealthy conditions

STI/HIV/AIDS

• To raise awareness about STI/HIV/AIDS of 4000 men living in rural settlements that are especially poor in accessing health services,
• To encourage monogamy,

Cervical cancer and breast cancer

• By means of giving training about early diagnosis of cervical cancer and breast cancer, to 15-49 aged 6000 women and 4000 men, including influential family members and community leaders, who live in rural settlements that are especially poor in accessing health services,
• to ensure early diagnosis of breast cancer through self breast examination,
• to ensure early diagnosis of cervical cancer through identification of symptoms,
• to increase access to health services relating to early diagnosis of breast and cervical cancer, 

Horizontal subject

• To increase awareness in the general public, especially among local authorities, community leaders and policy makers at the local level, about safe motherhood, family planning, STI/HIV/AIDS and early diagnosis of breast cancer and cervical cancer.

The Project is being implemented in cooperation with Ardahan Province Health Directorate and Mother-Child Health Programme (AÇSAP) Center.

In the framework of consultancy services, it is targeted that people living in Ardahan province are informed about safe motherhood, family planning, STI/HIV/AIDS and early diagnosis breast and cervical cancer, through one-to-one discussions. Another aim is to increase the reachability of the project. In closed societies, especially with the regards to private subjects such as SRH, people refrain from asking questions in public and try to seem indifferent. In this framework, in order to continue information activities during winter times, when it is really hard to reach remote rural settlements, and to respond information needs of the people living in the province centre and counties, a consultancy line will be established. The consultancy line, which will be rendering service between 10:00 and 17:00, will be free of charge for the callers will provide information on safe motherhood, family planning, STI/HIV/AIDS and early diagnosis of breast and cervical cancer. Female and male health personnel working at the consultancy centre will be responsible from answering the phones.

To sum up all the projects and activities of IBC in Ardahan, they were all related to the fundamental problems of Ardahan. IBC does not deal with the non-fundamental problems and does not have a populist approach; on the contrary, IBC deals with tough and important issues that people really face such as sustainable development, employment, and health. This vision is and will be in the center of IBC's mission and activities.