By Thomas Hartig | Communication Officer
The Casa-Granja is an integrated approach designed to improve the health and overall well-being of rural families. By growing nutritious crops and cultivating small poultry, using available resources and self-learning activities, participants become their own driver of change and success.
Don Francisco, age 70, has worked all his life with the earth, growing mostly bananas and different types of plantains. When his wife of many years died some months ago, it was a hard blow to recover from. Then don Francisco joined the Seeds for a Future Casa Granja (Backyard Farm) program. Our Extensionist assigned to don Francisco visits him each week, to provide coaching and support in growing a Nutrition Garden and raising fat and tasty chickens and ducks. Now, Francisco feels like life still has a purpose, as he works every day in his Backyard Farm to produce nutritious foods for himself, his son and daughter-in-law and his 3 grandchildren. And he smiles as he takes any extra poultry to sell in the market.
The most important drivers of rural development and prosperity are the people themselves!
While participating in the Casa-Granja program, relationships between families are getting stronger and there is more trust between neighbors. Our coaching incorporates strategies of personal growth. Participants learn to express their opinion and make decisions in different circumstances. They recognize that they are capable of achieving better conditions for themselves and their families.
Women may benefit most from participation, as they gain a sense of being a productive, valuable and creative part of the family. Also important is that both men and women become well-informed about the importance of nutrition, and how to fulfill the family's nutrition needs via daily meals produced in their Casa-Granja.
Hunger and poor nutrition mean that children don't develop properly and adults can't work effectively. The Seeds for a Future Casa Granja program teaches sustainable home agriculture because it is an outstanding way for families to overcome food insecurity, hunger and poverty. Producing sufficient nutritious food is reinforced side-by-side with learning that will benefit the household economy and help create more functional rural livelihoods.
Our Casa-Granja program offers an easily-adaptable solution to fight hunger and poverty in any rural area of Guatemala! Thank you for your interest in helping rural families build better lives for themselves!
Links:
By Thomas Hartig | Communication Officer
By Suzanne de Berge | President
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can recieve an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
