Help Rural Communities in their access to food

We accompany a school for children and young people with special needs, providing technical assistance, tools, and supplies to contribute to food sovereignty in communities in situations of social vulnerability.

The accompaniment process developed by ACDI in the La Madrid community also included the participation of educational institutions. One of the most significant experiences was the territorial accompaniment of the Alcira del Blanco Ergueta Special School, which has 4 educational levels (maternal level, kindergarten, primary level, secondary level).

During the morning shift, the secondary level operates, which has workshops for occupational guidance, one of which is the Orchard workshop. In this workshop, the students worked in the classrooms to incorporate knowledge about how to sow, the characteristics of each crop, the care they must have, how to harvest, etc. To do this, the teacher in charge relied on the tools designed by ACDI: KOKUE APP and KOKUE BOARD GAME. Thanks to these two tools, they learned techniques in a playful and didactic way, which they later implemented in their school orchard, such as plant association and crop rotation.

Both the game and the app are fundamental tools in the learning process of these young people, as many of the students still cannot read and write, so the design based on images and the app's sections helped a lot with the interpretation of information on the principles and foundations of agroecology. In this regard, Pamela Dorao, territorial promoter of ACDI in La Madrid, comments: "The impact that Kokue has had on these young people with special needs is important. The impact is seen in the productivity of the orchard, but thanks to how the young people learned in the classroom, both with the Kokue App and the Kokue game. The app is very intuitive and has so many images that those who cannot read can still learn. They have made significant progress, as they resumed the production of the orchard with the impetus of Kokue and the accompaniment of ACDI."

The harvests that the students have achieved so far have been onion, chard, carrot, cabbage, among others, and they were 100% destined to supply the school cafeteria that provides daily lunch to 50 children.

Thanks to all who make this work of contributing to the food sovereignty of the most vulnerable communities possible!

We introduce you to Patricia: a widow and mother of seven, who has her small family garden in the town of La Madrid, and who, with the support of the Kokue project, become in one of the most meaningful cases of resilience on the project with her day to day efforts to improve her family’s quality of life.

 An integral human accompaniment

Patricia lost her husband a few years ago, leaving under her responsibility the upbringing and maintenance of 7 children. We have met her and her family ears ago when visiting neighbors in La Madrid with our social protection project, there we learned that one of her children has a disability. Thanks to the accompaniment of our team, that child today finds his basic rights restored: inserted in the educational system in a special school according to his cognitive needs, and has the corresponding pension services.

Along the years Patricia and her family participated in different training sessions promoted by ACDI in various topics and interests: healthy cooking, handicrafts, production of sweets and preserves, family strengthening, agroecological gardening and bakery, among others. Sometimes Patricia put the knowledge acquired in the bakery workshop into practice and makes bread for sale, generating an extra income.

During the Covid-19 pandemic she started growing her own food to ensure the nourishmentof her family and it was so, with much sacrifice, that she put the vegetables on their feet. ACDI gave her seasonal seeds and accompanied the sowing process with the Kokue Mobile Application.

Currently Patricia's green garden has a dimension of 30 mts2. Patricia says she managed to sell more than 200 lettuce plants, thus obtaining an economic income for her family. Then, she also succeeded with harvesting and selling onions, chard, peppers and chili peppers.

The fruits of your garden

In Patricia’s garden it is possible to find nowadays aromatic plants such as mint and oregano, fruit plants such as a fig tree and also floral plants. This was the result of Kokue's recommendations, in its general advice section, where it encourages the planting of plants of this type to repel and prevent possible unwanted insects that can harm the garden.

Patricia was also able to offer her lettuce at the Kokue online fair, in its community section. She also managed to improve radish planting with information from the App while learning about crop association to improve soil nutrients.

Patricia's experience reflects the process of resilience that the community of La Madrid went through and like her, many families went back to old good habit of producing their own healthy and sustainable food, mitigating the effects of climate change, with Kokue’s digital support!