Empower Guatemalan Families With Food & Nutrition

Dear [donor name]

Because of you, more rural families in Guatemala have better nutrition and more food. Over a dozen years ago, Seeds for a Future started working with families in the village of Chocolá. Since then, we developed and fine-tuned our original ideas into our integrated, self-help Backyard Farm Program, now serving 14 villages.  In the Backyard Farm program, our extensionists work directly with each family for over a year, helping them acquire the skills to grow nutritious food, and the self-confidence to continue independently. Over 2000 families -- roughly 15,000 people -- have better lives based on what they learn in this integrated program.  

Today, your support is even more important, as we work in new areas and innovative ways to bring this very successful program to more families.  Here are two examples of how we're expanding our impact:

In alliance with Association SERCATE, we began coaching 6 groups of 10 families each, in San Antonio Suchitepequez and San Pablo Jocopilas, rural towns close to Chocolá. In these areas, most families have very limited space around their homes for raising either gardens or animals. Because of this, our approach is different from both the basic Backyard Farm and the Extension version (see GlobalGiving Report for December 2021). Here, our bi-weekly workshops include presentations and best practices in food security and nutrition, medicinal plants and nutritious herbs, and garbage separation. During December, we will feature the integrated concept of our Backyard Farm, adapted to focus on working in groups, complemented with container gardening for patios. Each group has found a place to start a nutrition garden together, where they apply the new skills learned.

Five years ago Seeds for a Future started to work with families in San Felipe Retalhuleu because of the high rates of chronic malnutrition and unemployment there. Three women stepped up as community leaders to guide local famlies under our mentoring and supervision. By now, 150 families have received coaching on Backyard Farms, with a special focus on food security and nutrition for pregnant or breastfeeding women. This year 24 new families have joined the program in San Felipe. But more help is needed as our Extensionists located another housing colony nearby that urgently needs the integrated Backyard Farm program to escape from poverty through self-reliance and growing their own food.

We're proud of the flexibility of our program and our team as their hard work produces wonderful results: new teams of local extensionists coaching and mentoring new families in new communities. With self-help skills and the knowledge they need to have more food and better nutrition, these families will build better lives and better communities.

Thank you very much for your generous help throughout 2021!

Links:

• Video of our alliance with SERCATE Association
• Video of our families in San Felipe

Your support makes it possible for more rural families in Guatemala to have better nutrition and more food because it allows us to work in new areas and innovative ways. Here are two examples:

The Basic Backyard Farm Program: Starting in the village of Chocolá more than 12 years ago, we developed and fine-tuned our original ideas into our integrated Backyard Farm Program, now serving 14 villages.  Despite months of pandemic protocols, this basic program continues to grow. In just the past 60 days, 25 new families have been welcomed into the integrated Backyard Farm program. 

Over 2000 families -- roughly 15,400 people -- have better lives based on what they learn in this integrated program.  Our extensionists work directly with each family for over a year, helping them acquire the skills to grow nutritious food, and the self-confidence to continue independently.

Our Extension Program, which teaches Backyard Farm methods, is also a success. Our team can't be everywhere, so we created a 7-month Extension program that trains local extensionists in a new community how to coach and mentor families in their area.  El Pilar, a coastal town in La Democracia, was chosen for this year's Extension Program because its climate and culture are quite different from the Chocolá area. Success here demonstrates the adaptability of our concepts and methods to a wide range of environments. 

The Extension Program in El Pilar began last April when our top team conducted the intensive 7-day initial training session for 3 new local extensionists and 22 "pioneer" families.  Our team and the trainees jointly assessed local growing conditions and food preferences, to adapt the training to focus on crops that would grow well and which families would gladly use in daily meals. Our team made 6 monthly follow-up visits for monitoring and support.

Today, El Pilar families are growing chard, mustard greens, tomatoes and onions for family use.  In some areas, families have joined to share a neighborhood nutrition garden, and other women have organized to also grow chili jalapeños, sweet peppers and cucumbers for sale. Our local partner, the Girasol (Sunflower) Association, will support the 3 new El Pilar extensionists as they mentor both the family nutrition gardens and the commercial projects. A big success for the families of El Pilar, and for Seeds for a Future's Extension Program!

We hope you join us in feeling very proud of the success participant families have built with what they learn from our dedicated and hard-working field team!

Please include Seeds for a Future in your plans for this year's Season of Giving!  Your contribution will help us add new families and new villages to the Backyard Farm program and create new ways to build self-reliant families and sustainable communities.

Thank you very much for your support !

Links:

• Webstie