In Guatemala, 1 million kids under the age of 5 suffer from chronic malnutrition.
Through this project area we aim to work towards the regeneration and restoration of ecosystems, while improving life quality of rural communities in Guatemala, promoting sustainable development and building social and environmental resilience.
Our objective is to create an inter-connected network of highly productive and sustainable systems, using permaculture design and agro-ecology practices, to create edible-forest gardens (please read more about this in our News section). We work with Guatemalan communities that live below the poverty line, mainly in the rural areas. Currently, we are primarily working with building up family gardens that you can read about below.
Family garden project
Two years ago, we initiated the family food garden project, where we support single mothers in setting up their own food gardens in order to feed their kids with nutritious food. The program that they participate in, which includes five workshops, teaches them how to manage a garden in terms of cultivation, harvest and general maintenance.
Impact
So far we have set up 45 food gardens and it has been a highly appreciated project. The project contributes to strengthening food security and food sovereignty along with spreading knowledge about nutritious diets. Another positive aspect of the project, that has been highlighted by its participants, is the relationships and the community that has been created through the workshops.
Challenges
The last two years have been especially challenging due to the Covid pandemic. Mothers need to bring their children to the workshops, which raises the number of participants that due the risk of spreading the virus has needed to be kept down. This has led to postponement of workshops and countless creative solutions. Although, we have managed and are very happy with the outcome of the projects. Another challenge that we are still coping with is the access to water in order to sustain the gardens. We are currently exploring several water retention systems, and we have found one that we believe has a lot of potential to be implemented during 2022. Today, the families need to walk long distances to find water, and the garden requires a lot of water to be sustained. We are using permaculture techniques for the garden to require as little water as possible, but we still need to find a better solution for the water accessibility.
Plans going forward
We have seen that our family food garden project is extremely appreciated, and many of the women who are participating in the project with their children have shown an appreciation in a way that we have never experienced in previous projects. We feel that we have found a winning concept where we really make a difference for these families, and will therefore continue to do similar projects next year to improve the situation for additional families.
As one of the challenges in our garden project is to find water to sustain the gardens. We will also have a bigger focus on growing edible mushrooms as a sustainable source of protein, vitamins and minerals and will complement the rest of the garden well. It will also strengthen the resilience and better growth of the trees as it creates a network and exchange of nutrients in the earth.
Some of the many benefits of this project are:
