Iwan is a resident of Banda Aceh who graduated from the second Village Development Course (VDC). During the course Iwan learned a wide range of environmental rehabilitation and home-scale food security skills. After the two-week course, Iwan returned home and started his own successful organic garden.
 
A few months after this, Iwan was asked by a local NGO in Kutacane, South Aceh, to train youths in what he had learned at the VDC as part of a local community empowerment program - this area of Southern Aceh is at high-risk for flash flooding and landslides due to wide scale illegal logging in the area. Iwan ran a 3-day training course focusing on the impacts of illegal logging, and practical techniques for organic farming and compost making. Thanks to Iwan’s efforts, several members of the Kutacane community gained an increased awareness about how illegal logging can create disasters, and they chose to return to agricultural practices instead. Iwan was also asked to continue to give trainings in the Kutacane area.
 
Iwan was very inspired by the response of the community to the training. Seeing the direct results of his efforts, and knowing that there is still so much work to be done, Iwan decided to return to the GreenHand Field Schools and continue to develop his knowledge by joining the Training of Trainers (ToT) program. Iwan is currently one of the participants in the project’s second 3-month ToT. He is just one of many wonderful successful stories at the GHFS in Lamsujen Lhoong, Aceh.