Getting
Hold of this 4-H
The
story of how the Polish American ExtensionProject led
to the revitalization of 4-H in Poland.
Sometimes the things we don't plan turn out the best. Some great unplanned things happened during the five years of the Polish American Extension Project (PAEP). And the momentum just keeps building.
The purpose of the PAEP was to lend the agricultural expertise of American Extension to its Polish counterpart, known as ODR. The hope was to convert an antiquated, once communist-dominated agricultural system into a free-enterprise, agribusiness economy. Poland had some 2.5 million family farms (12 acres on average) before the fall of communism and a few large, state-run farms. Polish farm communities needed to learn the farm management skills they once were not permitted to have.
The plan worked beautifully. But along the way, something even more rewarding happened. Polish young people were also attracted to what Extension had to offer. And Extension, because of its successful history with 4-H youth programs, enthusiastically responded.
"4-H was not part of the project's design. But it caught fire!" says John Ragland, professor of agronomy at the University of Kentucky and senior Extension advisor to the PAEP. "It has grown to the point that nearly every province now has 4-H programs."
Ragland, who spent four years in Poland, says education is the key to the economic success of the country's young people.
"These kids are working hard. They understand better than young people in the United States the value of an education. And the population overall is anxious to educate its young people, to help them become self-supporting and community contributors."
Over the five years of the PAEP, two-person Extension teams worked for six months at a time in each of the five provinces. Extension staff members from 30 states were part of the program, which was funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture/U.S. Agency for International Development.
When they saw how eager to learn the youth were, the PAEP teams helped 20 of the 600 agricultural technical schools across Poland to upgrade their curriculums and create computer laboratories. The kids use the labs nine hours every school day and adults use them on weekends. Another 200 schools set up their own labs modeled after the first 20. Some schools have made computer literacy a prerequisite for graduation, realizing its importance to the future.
"The development of these kids will be telescoped down into a few years," Ragland said. "It is easier to work in Poland than anywhere because these young people are so open to learning."
A conference held in Poland at the conclusion of the five-year project in December 1995 brought together representatives from 14 European countries to learn what had been accomplished in Poland and to create a vision for their own future. The first goal they identified was to raise their level of business planning skills and the second, to "get hold of this 4-H" for their young people.
Ragland says that Poland, with an appropriate level of support from the United States, can now take the lead in helping its European neighbors.
"They have similar traditions and a common heritage," he says. "American support will be needed because Americans are respected and have credibility in these countries, but the bulk of the leadership can come from the Poles."
Ragland doesn't hesitate a moment when he says, "Anybody who puts money into helping the youth of Poland will get a huge return on their investment. These young people want to learn. Everything we did with them turned out well."