Nepal Earthquake Food Security Initiative

Dear Friends,

Greetings and thank you very much for your kind support to provide food security to earthquake survivors in Nepal. This reporting period, our Nepal Program Officer Jed Christian Sayre personally supervised the distribution of seeds and garden tools. Together with the local organization Voluntary Youth Initiative Foundation they visited Bode about 8 miles from Kathmandu and met with 45 vegetable garden enthusiasts whom they distributed with seeds and garden tools. The seeds are purchased in local stores in Kathmandu ensuring that they are adapted to the area. Our first idea was to bring vegetable seeds from the Philippines but we think that this is not a good idea as the seeds may not grow there.

Again, thank you very much for your kind help to this important project.

Very sincerely yours,

Cora Sayre

Dear Friends,

Warm greetings and thank you very much for your continuing support to provide food via vegetable gardening to families affected by the earthquake in Nepal. This reporting period, we included in our repertoire of support not only the distribution of vegetable seeds, organic fertilizer and garden tools but we graduate to preparing for distribution to gardeners a simple manual suited for their conditions. This is so because we found out that the knowledge about vegetable gardening by local residents are rudimentary and few. They learn gardening via the literature found in seed packets and this is not enough. Our capacity-building program revolves around what we call the philosophy of Enrichment of Foodlife which “encompass more than just producing food to alleviate hunger. Enrichment of Foodlife emphasizes the value of producing and sharing healthy food in a manner sustainable to the environment and to the community, through the cooperative efforts of the community. It stresses the importance of making the best use of locally available resources and it leads toward the development of vibrant self-reliant rural communities and villages.”

The core training areas in our manual include following;

a. Theory of plant growth and agronomic requirements.
b. Vegetable garden planning and budgeting.
c. How to grow and take care of some.
d. How to make own organic fertilizer (bokashi).
e. How to make soil conditioner such as biochar and effective micro-organisms.
f. Vegetable harvesting techniques.
g. Preparing vegetable menu and dishes.
h. Basic food preservation techniques.
i. Back home action planning.

We are sending the electronic copy of the manual and printing cost to our partner local association in Nepal. We intend to distribute a total of 700 copies of the manual.

Thank you very much and hoping for your continuing support.

Very sincerely yours,

Cora