Volunteer for our Regenerative Farm School, Remotely or in Bali

It’s crazy how fast things grow in the tropics! When we founded Bekandze Farm in early 2023 we thought we could make a small but meaningful contribution to local food security and environmental care, by promoting and supporting the development of regenerative agriculture in our small patch of Bali. Sixteen months later the infrastructure is in, the garden is thriving, and the training is in full swing. But it hasn’t just been the plants that have been growing – our vision for the project has been growing too!

When we started Bekandze Farm – Regenerative Training Center we knew there was a need, but we had little idea how great that need was. Nor did we realise how vast is the opportunity to have a positive impact on how food is grown here, not just in Bali but throughout Indonesia. When we advertised for staff we attracted applicants from all over Indonesia hungry for an opportunity to develop their professional skills in regenerative agriculture. When we promoted our first free farmer training program we fielded enquiries from isolated farmers on far flung islands throughout Indonesia eager to take up the opportunity to connect learn from regenerative farmers in other parts of the country. And when we were approached by one of only two vocational high schools still teaching agriculture in Bali to help them stop the hemorrhaging of students out of agricultural studies into tourism, we knew for certain that we were on the cusp of something far greater and more impactful than we had envisaged.

Faced with such an opportunity, what are we to do? We are a tiny farm school in a tiny village, with a small staff and a meagre budget, relying heavily on sponsors and donors to achieve our goals. We launched a paid internship programme for the young farmers. But there is so much more to do. So one thing we can do is ask for help, and invite you to join us as we grow and move forward to realise this opportunity for much greater impact.

So we are putting out the call nationally and internationally for people with specific skills in areas of strategic importance to this enlarged vision for Bekandze Farm.

We know for sure that many people with valuable skills express a heartfelt desire to contribute to meaningful change and have real practical impact. And we want to invite such people to consider making a contribution to the work here, by volunteering their skills and time, either remotely from where they are, or on location in Bali.

By volunteering with us you would be enabling a practical response to what some people call the ‘polycrisis’ and others recognize as the beginnings of societal collapse. That’s because we aim for our efforts to be the beginning of progress towards collaborative resilience.

Our priority projects are as follows:

Expansion of our existing Indonesian language farmer training program to include options for online training, making it accessible to any farmer anywhere in Indonesia.
Expansion of our existing High School Internship programme, and development of a new Schools Program for Elementary and Junior High School students.
Development of a women’s programme to help foster the empowerment of rural women in the context of regenerative agriculture.
Development of agri-tourism and eco-tourism activities based at Bekandze Farm to help us generate sustainable income for the ongoing funding of our free educational programs.

Some of these programmes are already underway and we have a clear idea of what specific skills we need and what tasks are required. Others are as yet only loosely defined and we are seeking expert input from experienced individuals to help us make these a reality. The details are below.

If you or someone in your network may have the skills we are looking for at this time, we would love to hear from you. At the end of this blog we have created an online form to help streamline the process, which also has details of how we envisage this could work for both remote and on-location volunteers. Before applying, please review the role information below. Although a registered charity in the UK is the fiscal sponsor for Bekandze Farm, we are not a registered Indonesian charity and therefore cannot help with any visa applications (further details on that are on the application form).

Want to help but don’t have the time? Then please send this information to people who might be able to help and make a donation to fund our interns from the local agricultural college.

DIGITAL SUPPORT NEEDED

Website design

As the aim of Bekandze Farm is to promote and enable change towards organic and resilient farming, we will launch a website to enable communication of various kinds. We seek support in the initial website design and construction, and (potentially) ongoing development and maintenance. Website must include capacity for online training, events bookings, and e-commerce.
Timing, location and workload: IMMEDIATE, any location, 1-2 weeks, and potentially ongoing 1 day a month.
Expertise and experience: We are particularly interested in hearing from you if you have a portfolio of past work.

Videography

We will be creating an online course for farmers in Indonesia and elsewhere to learn about regenerative and resilient farming methods. This will be based on videos of the live teaching we do on our farm.
Timing, location and workload: Aug-Oct/Nov 2024 inclusive, at our farm near Tampaksiring, Bali, minimum 1 day per week (specific dates and hours according to the training schedule) for 3-4 months.
Expertise and experience: We are particularly interested in hearing from you if you have a portfolio of past work and have all the necessary equipment.

Video editing

For the online course, we need an editor to work with us to produce videos from the raw footage from the farm training, as well as production of ‘teasers’ for our TikTok and YouTube channels.
Timing, location and workload: Aug-Oct/Nov 2024 inclusive, can be remote but ideally in Bali near Ubud or Tampaksiring, minimum 2 days per week for 3-4 months.
Expertise and experience: We are particularly interested in hearing from you if you have a portfolio of past work. In addition, fluency in Bahasa Indonesia is very helpful.

Training portal design

We are launching a training portal for students of regenerative and resilient farming. This requires the design and implementation of a bi-lingual (Bahasa Indonesia and English) online ‘knowledge base’ using an open-source content management system, such as Moodle or similar.
Timing, location and workload: Initially from Aug-Dec 2024, any location, likely a total of 20 days work.
Expertise and experience: either training in, or a portfolio of work with, an open-source content management system, such as Moodle or similar.

Social Media

Online outreach will help us reach students for online courses. Therefore, we seek assistance with management of our social media accounts, via the production of content at our farm and editing/posting to our social media accounts.
Timing, location and workload: IMMEDIATE and ongoing, including the minimum of a visit to our farm once a week, and about half a day of editing and posting per week. Additionally, there is the possibility of a remote working editor to use our raw footage for short videos.
Expertise and experience: existing experience with Instagram and TikTok is necessary and fluency in Bahasa Indonesia would be a bonus to us.

PROJECTS REQUIRING OTHER SKILLS

Women’s Program Development

We seek support for the development of our women’s program, where we work with local women (initially in the Tampaksiring area) to create producer cooperatives for organically grown produce, and teach the skills for making value added products such as dried fruits and herbs etc.
Timing, location and workload: As soon as available and ongoing, time commitment negotiable.
Expertise and experience: Experience in developing and running similar programs elsewhere essential. Remote mentoring and guidance of local staff (in English) is feasible. On-location mentoring and support requires good Bahasa Indonesia language skills, strong background in community work, and preferably living in Ubud or Tampaksiring areas.

School Program Development

We seek support for the development of our schools program, where we welcome local students to the farm, and advise them on launching their own organic garden at their schools. Working with international schools is also possible but a secondary priority.
Timing, location and workload: As soon as available and ongoing, time commitment negotiable.
Expertise and experience: Remote mentoring and guidance of local staff (in English) is feasible. On-location mentoring and support requires good Bahasa Indonesia language skills, strong background in youth work or school education, and preferably living in Ubud or Tampaksiring areas.

Grant Writing

We seek leadership in finding and applying for appropriate grants for our various programs (from international funding bodies).
Timing, location and workload: As soon as available and ongoing, time commitment negotiable.
Expertise and experience: background in international projects on regenerative agriculture is useful and experience of grant writing is essential.

Agri-Tourism Development

We seek help to develop, market and (potentially) co-host our farm-based experiences and courses for foreigners visiting or living in Bali (in English).
Timing, location and workload: IMMEDIATE, initially 10-days work before end of Aug 2024, then negotiable, ideally based in either Ubud or Tampaksiring area.
Expertise and experience: Experience in agro-tourism and/or eco-tourism isdesirable, as is experience in tourism operations in Bali. Passion for the environment, regenerative agriculture, organic food, alternate healing modalities, Bali and Balinese culture, art and music are all desirable.

Fundraising

We seek support with fundraising both locally and internationally, including through outreach to the successful companies in Bali, and their owners, who want to promote organic and regenerative farming here.
Timing, location and workload: IMMEDIATE and ongoing, time commitment negotiable.
Expertise and experience: some knowledge of organic farming is useful and experience of liaising with relevant companies about their community engagement is essential.

Mentoring

We seek one of our locally-based volunteers to also explore acting as a mentor for some of our staff and incoming volunteers. This is not a standalone role and would need to be combined with one of the ones outlined above.
Timing, location and workload: As soon as available and ongoing, time commitment negotiable.
Expertise and experience: relevant knowledge and experience for the other volunteer role being undertaken, as well as some management experience in small to medium sized organizations, in nonprofit or social enterprise sectors.

Can you help? Please take 10 minutes to fill out the application form.