Empower Guatemalan Families With Food & Nutrition

A few months ago, Maribel and Esbin signed up with the Seeds Team for a backyard farm (Casa Granja, in Spanish).  Maribel speaks proudly of their success: “Our yard is completely different now, more organized, and we are able to have things we never thought we could, such as two coops for raising ducks and chickens, and more space to grow tilapia.  We also ‘discovered’ areas that receive a lot of sun, so we are now planting nutritious greens, tomatoes, broccoli and chiles.”  

Maribel has also absorbed a lot of information about nutrition from the coaching provided by the Seeds Team: “We have learned about the importance of nutrition for our children, and to grow vegetables and animals for our family to eat, because we need both vegetable and animal protein for the nutrition of our children and ourselves as well.”

In addition to helping families learn to make better, more productive use of their existing patio and yard space, the Seeds team also provides training in several forms of recycling: using garden leftovers and animal manure to create fertilizer, using discarded containers and tires for growing nutritious veggies, and proper disposal of unusable solid wastes. 

Each house is different, so each Casa-Granja is a little different.  Herminia has less yard space, so she puts many discarded containers to work.  The photo below shows the chard she grows in a re-purposed tire. The chopped up stalk of a banana tree has been added to provide both moisture and minerals, especially potassium, to the soil.

This is the kind of practical work Seeds for the Future does in rural Guatemala, and as you can see, we are helping families achieve positive results.  YOUR FINANCIAL SUPPORT IS VITAL to helping these families have enough food, and nutritious food that is grown at home -- basic building blocks for a better life.  PLEASE DONATE TODAY, SO MORE FAMILIES CAN SUCCEED!

July, 2017 – Despite heavy seasonal rains (the local joke is that it rains 13 months of the year), the Seeds Team hosted Board members for a very informative visit in and around Chocolá.

We visited nutrition gardens and backyard farms during rain-free morning hours, with a flexible schedule for the afternoon: classroom visits and indoor activities in case of rain, or quick trips to nearby demonstration gardens, weather permitting.

As a supporter of Seeds for a Future, you already know you are helping us do important work to help families have better diets and healthier lives.  For those who cannot visit to see in person just how vital this work is, we invite you to share a brief 7-min. video (see link below).

A few years ago, four university students set out to try to understand poverty from the inside, in order to learn what kinds of actions might truly help.  One result of their experience in Guatemala was the very moving documentary "Living on One."  They also created a Change Series, where each of 6 segments lays out a specific reality that is a vital part of combating poverty at its roots.  

We urge you to click the link below and select their NUTRITION segment, which depicts the relationship between poverty and malnutrition, and shows clearly why your support is so important, and why the Seeds Team and the participating families work so hard to overcome these intertwined evils.

Using our fundamental strategies of coaching and support for raising nutritious food at home, Seeds for a Future has helped over 1000 families to learn and practice lifetime skills that will allow them to build a better future.  You can see some of the current results of this hard work in the short presentation on the activities of our recent visit (second link below).

If it has been some time since your last much-appreciated contribution, I ask you to consider renewing your support so we can continue to help families produce nutritious food for every meal and build self-reliance and better lives.  Won’t you reach out again to help these determined families improve their own lives?

Thank you for your generous support!  

Links:

• NUTRITION from the Living on One Change Series
• A brief presentation on the activities of our visit