Maryland Volunteer Travels to Tanzania to Share Skills with Local Farmers

CAPITOL HEIGHTS, Md. - July 8, 2015 - PRLog -- Holly Heintz Budd, President/CEO of Williams & Heintz Map Corporation, Capitol Heights, Maryland will travel to Tanzania for 3 weeks to share her technical skills and expertise with local farmers. Budd's assignment is part of Catholic Relief Services' Farmer-to-Farmer (FTF) program that promotes economic growth, food security, and agricultural development in East Africa.

In Tanzania, Budd will work with smallholder farmers, providing technical assistance to development and strengthen cooperatives and associations of grain farmers.

"I am honored to have this opportunity to help farmers organize groups and co-ops to share information, learn best farming practices, get better prices on materials, and sell for greater profits," said Budd.

Funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the five-year program matches the technical assistance of U.S. farmers, agribusinesses, cooperatives, and universities to help farmers in developing countries improve agricultural productivity, access new markets, and increase their incomes.

Budd's volunteer assignment is one of nearly 500 assignments that focus on agriculture, food security and nutrition in Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. This is the first time CRS has been involved in the 28-year-old Farmer-to-Farmer Program funded by the U.S. government.

CRS is partnering with four U.S. institutions to tap into the rich diversity of the U.S. agriculture community: - the National Catholic Rural Life Conference, Foods Resource Bank, National Association of Agricultural Educators, and American Agri-Women.

The U.S. volunteers will travel to East Africa for anywhere from one to six weeks, their expenses covered by USAID.

"One thing we are certain of is that this program will be beneficial not just to the farmers in East Africa, but also to the volunteers from America," said Bruce White, CRS' director for the program. "It's going to make the world a little bit smaller for everyone involved."

Holly Heintz Budd is the President/CEO of Williams & Heintz Map Corporation. She serves on the Board of Directors, and is Chair of the Environmental Committee of Printing and Graphics Association, MidAtlantic.  She serves on the Board if the International Map Industry Association and the Maryland Faerie Festival.  Budd is the Chair of Maryland Organic Food and Farming Association.

Catholic Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. The agency alleviates suffering and provides assistance to people in need in nearly 100 countries, without regard to race, religion or nationality. For more information, please visit crs.org (http://www.crs.org/) or crsespanol.org (http://www.crsespanol.org/).