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CIRCLE Presents Best Practices at Roundtable, Reception Winrock International's CIRCLE program, funded by the United States Department of Labor, celebrated the launch of its best practices manual at a Washington D.C. reception on April 3. The program aims to protect children and youth from child labor through education by identifying, promoting and supporting innovative, locally-developed community-based projects. The global CIRCLE program has funded more than 100 community-based NGOs in 24 countries since 2002, and has protected more than 24,000 children for the worst forms of child labor. The reception was preceded by a roundtable discussion of the program's best practices in order to take stock of past achievements and trends and push the "tipping point" of collective impact of preventing and eliminating child labor through integrated and coherent knowledge management approaches. The roundtable included representatives from the U.S. Department of Labor/Bureau of International Labor Affairs/Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking, The International Labor Organization, Washington, DC office and international organizations and local organizations from four CIRCLE countries including Ecuador, Nepal, the Philippines and Malawi. Volunteer Assistance ImprovesProduction in Bangladesh In 2006, Dr. Omar Oyarzabal volunteered his services through the USAID-funded John Ogonowski Farmer-to-Farmer Program to assist the BRAC Broiler Processing Center in Bangladesh. Dr. Oyarzabal's recommendations allowed the host to improve quality and increase quantity to his broiler business. These improvements led to a 54-percent increase in production volume in 2006, and by July of 2007, producers saw a 64-percent increase in gross monthly sales to customers such as Bangladesh's national airlines, Dhaka city's five-star hotels and fast food chains like A&W, Wimpy and Nandos. BRAC, one of the world's largest NGOs dedicated to helping the poor, has decided to increase production to meet growing demands, and measures are underway to expand processing facilities and install new equipment. In addition to acquiring international-level food safety and quality standards, the processing center has opened up marketing channels for numerous commercial broiler farm owners to sell their poultry for further processing and marketing, supporting market linkages. U.S. Programs' Nonprofit Improvement Partnership Participants Visit Washington, D.C. U.S. Programs' Nonprofit Improvement Partnership recently hosted a group of Arkansans for the National Study Tour in Washington D.C. Open discussions and training are imperative to continued development in rural communities and the National Study Tour is the ideal outlet for those activities. Among the activities during the week, participants met with the Arkansas congressional delegation and funding agency staff at USDA to discuss community development projects in their communities. Organizations participating in the National Study Tour included the Bayou Bartholomew Alliance, East Arkansas RC&D, Mission Outreach of Northeast Arkansas and the cities of Cotton Plant, Montrose and Palestine. Winrock Video Featured on NetHope.org
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