No matter where you go time has its way to get you home.
Such instance is what happened to Windolyn Janice D. Navales, daughter of Sergio Navales, owner of SN Farmer, a certified learning site of ATI located at Simpak, Lala, Lanao del Norte.
During her younger years, she grew up helping and observing her father in the field with an unknown desire to get involve in agriculture and no thoughts of following her father’s footsteps.
She dreamed of being a lawyer, thus she took up AB-Political Science in college at MSU-IIT and later on pursued Bachelor of Laws in 2007 at the University of Southern Philippines.
While waiting for her license, together with her older brother, they furthered their career in Abu Dhabi in the Middle East and worked there as an executive secretary in a construction company with the thought of settling there for a while.
But then, time has its way to get her home. In 2018, she went home and took care of her sick mother. A year after that, she decided to assist her father in the farm and do the paper works to apply their farm into a learning site.
With the certification of their farm as a learning site, her interest in agriculture grew again. She noticed how ATI gave importance to farmers. She saw hope that in time just how ATI helped her father through trainings, she will be able to help other farmers as well.
Her love for agriculture grew as she became her father’s partner in the farm and in handling trainings. At first she assisted her father in doing paperworks since during that time, aside from the trainings conducted from ATI, her father facilitated Farmer Field School (FFS) as well.
Her consideration of going back to Abu Dhabi flew out the window now that her love of agriculture is stronger than before. Sometime in August 2021, she got the opportunity to participate in the Training of Trainors on Inbred Rice conducted by ATI X.
With this event, her father transferred the conduct of FFS trainings on her responsibility and was able to train more farmers. The fulfillment she felt seeing how a farmer's life changed and how she was able to help farmers through her training made her realize that after all, this is the life she wanted. Her farming knowledge in agriculture grew every day and continued learning from the trainings and IEC materials coming from ATI.
Before, it never crossed her mind to get involve in agriculture, the heart she was in farming was not that strong to pursue it. She may have already reached other destinations in the name of career, but time has its way to get her home which is her destiny---to have a farmer’s heart.
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