Food Security Honduras Project #15390

Seeds to Grow 100 Tons of Needed Food in Honduras

by Seed Programs International

Project Report | Jun 9, 2014
Project Funded! Deep Planning Underway.

By Peter Marks | Seed Programs International

Sharing seeds

Great News. We give our deep thanks to the Zimmer Foundation for committing $5,000 of support for this project. GlobalGiving progress had persisted for six months in a very "slow but steady" fashion, but this big bump finally allows us to jump in with both feet.

Planning Underway. Fredy Sierra and Jose Jimenez with our partner FIPAH in Honduras along with Dr. Sally Humphries (University of Guelph, Ontario) have begun to execute a deep and wonderful plan to use the vegetable seeds you are helping to provide! Here is an excerpt from their plan, as communicated by Dr. Humphries. I thought you as a donor via GlobalGiving would be esepcially interested in the plan for training. It always wise along with giving seeds to also share knowledge - and set up local bearers of that knowledge for success.

"Fredy and Jimenez recommend having two field schools in each of the three geographical zones (i.e. 6 in total): one for training people in vegetable/seed production in the upland areas and another for training in the low(er) zones. The idea is to limit how much people have to travel and to tailor the workshops to the geographic/environmental specifics of the different zones. The plan is to train 2 to 3 people per CIAL [farmer group], plus facilitators. The latter will push the project forwards. In total they estimate training 48 male community (CIAL) leaders and 72 women (CIAL) community leaders, plus FIPAH’s farmer facilitators. These workshops would include:

a. Agronomic management: site selection, soil preparation, sowing, etc. for managing: tomatoes, chiles, cabbages, cucumbers, green beans, carrots, onions, radishes, beets, mustard, lettuce, peas, pumpkin, squashes, shallots, okra, sweet maize, local Honduran varieties of: camote (sweet potato), yucca (cassava), soya (soy); melon, watermelon.

b. Artisanal seed production: selection of fruits/vegetables, seed drying, treatment, storage, seed and vegetable marketing, etc.

c. Nutrition: Workshop providing information on the nutritional characteristics of different vegetables, combinations of vegetables, food preparation (recipes), etc. in order to provide a broad understanding of the nutritional benefits of vegetables, leading to the development of a local nutritional model."

We will close the project on GlobalGiving now, since our goal is reached with your key help. But we will not stop reporting and will let you know as the seeds you funded are sent, planted, and harvested!

Permalink

Mar 7, 2014
Why is there Hunger in Honduras?

By Peter Marks | Project Leader, Seed Programs International

Participatory Farmer Research in Honduras

Dear Project Supporters,

We continue in our quest to fund this project for the deserving participatory Honduran farmer group, FIPAH. Please use the share links at http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/seeds-for-honduras/share/ to spread the word about the need for vegetable seeds and training in these communities.

Meanwhile, I wanted to let you know a little bit about the context of hunger in Honduras. We are encouraged in crowdfunding to tell the most personal stories possible, to put you, the donor, in the shoes of the individuals you are being asked to support. For most of us, myself included, the power to move us to give is in the expression on the face of a hungry child in a photograph, or the joy of an adult harvesting fresh vegetables from a field.

The truth, though, is that in so much of the developing world, the plight of individuals is so far beyond their control that it has value to step back and look at context. Poverty is the cause of hunger, and it is so often big forces, far away from that beautiful photo, that keep people trapped in poverty. So, here is a little bit bit about Honduras:

Honduras had a democratically-elected government until a 2009 coup. There was a much-anticipated election in 2013, since the time we first posted this project. There are strong concerns about fraud.
Here is an article from British newspaper The Guardian, titled "Why the World Should Care About Honduras' Recent Election." Article Link
Indigenous group leaders in Honduras face imprisonment and death when they attempt to run for political office to support changing the plight of poor and hungry people. From Amnesty International: Article Link
The murder rate in Honduras declined in 2013 and remains the highest murder rate in the world. Chicago Tribune: Article Link

With this backdrop in mind, we are especially excited that FIPAH in Honduras is already designed to be inclusive of all members of the communities served. Here is text from a profile article in The Tyee, a Canadian website:

Youth and women are heavily involved in all aspects, with the latter accounting for close to 50 per cent of the program's membership.

"Before, women didn't have any say in agriculture. Now they're active in many projects," said Hilda Mencia, CIAL's Women in Action coordinator and treasurer. "Now we have a say in what goes on in our farming communities. The men received us well. Women are good farmers because we are motivated and hard working and organized. We are leaders."

The youth project has drawn 600 members, and is focused on providing work opportunities, education, and training within their communities to preserve the agricultural tradition. In the past year 40 kids finished studies in the trades and three are heading to rural Norway on an exchange.

Until we raise some more monies, the goal of our partnership, to add and expand vegetable production to existing efforts using corn and beans, is on hold. Please keep GlobalGiving "gifts in honor" in mind as you think about birthdays, weddings, mother's day, and other events!

Links:

Article Quoted in Report

Permalink

Dec 18, 2013
A Boost from Rotary

By Peter Marks | Seed Programs International

‹ 1 2 3 4 5

About Project Reports

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 receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.