Dave and Kaye Slusser live in Halfmoon Township, near the border of the Bald Eagle Valley, but their work on behalf of humanity deserves mention in any column.
Retired dairy farmers and former 4-H leaders, the Slussers today help improve milk production and livestock nutrition in impoverished countries with the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Farmer-to- Farmer program.
Their latest trip last month took them to Jordan for two weeks.
Assisting the Noor Al Hussein Foundation, the Slussers taught young Palestinian refugees about running youth agricultural clubs.
It was Dave Slusser’s 10th trip as a volunteer for the Agricultural Cooperative Development International/Volunteers in Overseas Cooperative Assistance, a nonprofit humanitarian organization that manages the USAID program.
His wife, a travel companion before, completed her first working assignment. She educated girls while her husband worked separately with boys, in accordance with Muslim culture.
Since 1993, a few years after they sold their Crawford County farm, the Slussers have gone as volunteers or on paid jobs to Egypt, Lebanon, Yemen, Georgia, Armenia, Macedonia, Ukraine and Bolivia.
Most of Dave Slusser’s time overseas with ACDI/VOCA has been spent training native farmers and veterinarians to better feed and manage dairy cattle for higher yields. He also specializes in showing farmers how to establish milk cooperatives — drafting business plans, obtaining loans for tanks — so that their sales and profits increase.
At the end of one four-year project in Africa, a cooperative linking 16 villages saw its annual production jump from $30,000 worth of milk to $1 million, Slusser said.
“I used to joke my job is to help the world improve, one cow at a time,” he said.
He could say the same thing about people.
His constant goal is to empower one or two individuals, so “when we go home, there’s someone there to keep going, to carry on.”
“You don’t teach and preach and then go home,” he said. “You get nothing done. You go in and develop local leadership, and then it continues.”
Slusser’s own progression as a teacher — from youth leader to Pennsylvania Dairy Herd Improvement Association manager to global educator — might continue this spring. His next trip could be to Uganda and more hungry people in need.
“It’s a moral thing,” he said. “We have an obligation; we’re world citizens. The world has a lot of problems and challenges, and we’re trying to help them feed themselves better.”
Chris Rosenblum writes a weekly column about happenings in the Bald Eagle area. Contact him at crosenbl@centredaily.com or 231-4620.
