Henk and Kartini (2022)
Today Henk Hobbelink, co-founder and coordinator of GRAIN, will retire and hand over his responsibilities to the next generation. We thank Henk for more than 30 years of his dedicated work and wish him the best. Henk has marked the direction of the organisation, so it will be a big change! But we are ready for it. We decided that rather than hire a new external coordinator, GRAIN will strengthen its internal collective coordination that aligned with our organisational culture and values. This is a system we built more than 20 years ago and it functions well.
For those who want to stay in touch with Henk, his email is: [email protected]
Nominally, the new Coordinator will be Kartini Samon, our long time programme staffer in Indonesia. Kartini will lead a coordination team, made up of herself plus two other veteran staffers, that is responsible for the overall coordination and management of the organisation. In addition, Alexandra Toledo will take responsibility for GRAIN’s fundraising. Other staff will take on new roles to mutually support each other and ensure that we continue to function as a coherent, horizontal and strong collective.
During the past year we have spend a lot of time preparing for these new roles. This included discussions on how to reorganise and training people up. We are very confident that we will be able to keep GRAIN on the right track in this new chapter and continue to produce new research and support movements fighting for food sovereignty as ever. We are fully aware that none of this would be possible without our colleagues, partners, allies and friends across the world. Thank you for being there and for your continued support!