Home Gardens for 200 Families, Oaxaca, Mexico

Dear GlobalGiving Supporters,

Happy New Year! I hope your year is off to a great start.

Since I was last in touch, we have continued our work with family gardens in collaboration with students from the Universidad del Pueblo. This has included training in the preparation and implementation of organic compounds including insect repellents, fungicides, and fertilizers.

Community producers were also invited to learn about the benefits of these organic compounds and the results of the first harvests from the family gardens were shared, which included cucumber, squash, chili, tomato, green beans, cilantro, epazotes, and scallions.

The difference was also shown between the gardens that used the organic compounds and the few that did not. The ones that used the organic compounds prepared in the workshops obtained the best results, as the vegetables grew and blossomed better. The results were evident. Based on this, the demand for organic compounds by students and producers increased, so additional training workshops will be scheduled.

Finally, at the beginning of the activities with the students of the Universidad del Pueblo, a small competition was proposed to encourage their participation, commitment, and effort in the implementation of the home gardens.

The challenge consisted of a monthly evaluation of the work they did to achieve a successful harvest. The top 3 were rewarded with some additional equipment. This December water tanks and pumps were delivered to facilitate irrigation in the best-performing home gardens. The students were excited and immediately asked us what the next step would be in relation to the home gardens.

It is a new year and there are many opportunities ahead! Thanks to the work and effort of everyone involved the home garden project has great potential for expansion and replication, as several schools from different grade levels in the region have reached out and want to be considered for future activities

We now have new allies and capable people, convinced of what can be achieved if they make an effort.

Thank you all for your support!

Greetings GlobalGiving Supporters,

The implementation of the family gardens has progressed steadily and 9 new gardens have been implemented with the support of teachers from the Universidad del Pueblo de San José Chiltepec. We have started to implement the last of the planned gardens with the elementary school Aquiles Serdán de Arroyo Choapam. It had been delayed until the beginning of the new school year, but the first training workshop with the students of this great school has recently taken place.

The gardens implemented in this last cycle are beginning to yield their first harvests and the participants are very enthusiastic about the results. The difference between these gardens with respect to those implemented previously lies in the use of irrigation systems adapted to local conditions, which facilitated the care, management, and time required to tend the family gardens. This small but significant change was brought about by feedback from previous beneficiaries and our field technician.

We are also very excited about the renewal of many of the face-to-face activities in the communities, which allowed us to conduct a training workshop on how to make organic compounds to control common pests and diseases in the family garden. These include bostol (bio repellent), chamomile infusion (bio fungicide), soap dilution (bioinsecticide), and garlic extract (bioinsecticide).

With these experiences and a lot of enthusiasm for the results obtained in the home gardens of this last cycle, we continue working for the conservation of natural resources and the improvement of food sovereignty. 

We are profoundly grateful for your support!

Marco Acevedo, Program Officer, Mexico