Empower Guatemalan Families With Food & Nutrition

In Chocolá normal annual rainfall is measured in METERS (!!) so even in a normal year, rain is not to be taken lightly. In August and September, Seeds for a Future's President and Treasurer spent fours days in the Chocolá area getting a first hand look at the difficulty of maintaining healthy vegetable gardens this year, because the rains have been both more intense and lasting for more hours than usual.  

Whether this is a normal variation in weather or the result of global climate change, the result has been very challenging for our staff and participating families.  The heavy rains pound down seedlings, encourage the growth of fungi and other plant diseases, and wash away or compact well-prepared soils.  

Seeds for a Future staff are already implementing next steps, including devoting more space and resources to growing seedlings in the greenhouse at the Seeds HQ, helping the families repair their garden beds and renew the soil, and replanting as quickly as possible.

But who could imagine that on top of torrential rain, there would be PIGS?!?  Ingrid, the Seeds nutrition counselor for Santo Tomas La Union, guided us down narrow winding streets to see a model garden -- one that had been beautiful when she visited it just 2 days before.  She was stunned to see that it looked as if it had been completely harvested, and not too carefully, either.  A photo of the culprits is shown below -- a couple of young pigs who found a place to nudge under the fence and help themselves!

Despite the challenges, the participant families remain positive.  The women are delighted to harvest -- right outside their door -- many of their favorite food plants, such as Hierba Mora, Chipilin and Flor Amarilla, which were chosen for the program because of their high nutritive value.  Delicious typical meals are now enhanced with extra nutrition from these and other home-grown vegetables.  

And we're very proud of the Seeds team!  A dozen men and women, young and not so young, all from the same communities as the participants.  They have worked hard through long hours of training, they are strongly committed to the goals and principles of the project, and they have come together as a team -- sharing responsibility, sharing tasks, and sharing companionship and fun.  It's an honor to support them in their desire to help their community.

Thank you for your generous support of Seeds for a Future and the rural families of Guatemala.

PLEASE CONSIDER AN ADDITIONAL DONATION.  SEEDS FOR A FUTURE NEEDS YOU, TO KEEP THE FIGHT AGAINST MALNUTRITION MOVING FORWARD!

A month ago, Seeds' Project Manager Armando Astorga drove down a rough mountain road with two of his team members to arrive at Piedrecitas, a village of 58 families -- so remote that it takes village women an hour (each way!) on foot and then in a dangerous local bus, to get to a small market.  

Victoria, a leader in the village, welcomed our team and the meeting began.  As the Seeds team showed the women what they could grow right next to their homes, and talked about how our local team members would be with them every step of the way to coach and assist, the women became more and more excited.  No more long trips to the market for a mere handful of limp greens they can barely afford!  Better nutrition for their children and families -- and themselves!  They were "IN!"

Initially 28 families signed up and now all 58 families in Piedrecitas are starting vegetable gardens.  And while the women may know instinctively how important their garden produce will be for their family, I can share some statistics with you: during a baseline assessment conducted in Piedrecitas for Seeds by the Institute for Nutrition of Central America and Panama (INCAP), about 60% of the women tested had a significant levels of anemia and malnutrition, and the same was true for about half of the children under one year of age-- even including acute stages.

Thanks to your support, Seeds for a Future is now training over 400 needy rural families to help themselves build a better future.  The vegetable growing skills participants learn from the Seeds team will last a lifetime, and can be shared with family and friends -- with no more need for charity handouts or government emergency food programs.

I hope you share our feeling of reward in knowing that many children in Piedrecitas and the Chocola region of Guatemala will grow up mentally and physically stronger because of better nutrition from family gardens.  And I hope you will literally SHARE this email with friends and colleagues you think might share your interest in helping rural families fight the twin evils of poverty and malnutrition.

Your gift will help us expand to more villages, and to bring nutrition and clean-kitchen training to all our garden program participants! 100% of your donation goes directly to Seeds' programs, and of course they are tax deductible.  Global Giving's donation system makes it easy to give on a monthly or quarterly basis, too!

Warmest regards and thanks for sharing,

Suzanne de Berge, President