" Seeds of Hope" self sustainable relief program

Growing sustainable communities, one seed at a time

The Small World launched the Seeds of Hope program in response to Covid19 pandemic, and now it developed as an agriculture support program for communities in Everest region. We have been providing free seeds and agricultural training to empower families to grow their own food. Identifying those most at risk, such as single mothers, the unemployed, COVID-19-affected families, and vulnerable women, the initiative fostered community support groups to address local challenges.

 Participants receives quality seeds and greenhouse tunnels, introducing new plant varieties for diversified nutrition. 

The project aimed to 

• enhance small-scale farming capabilities in the region
• improve nutrition for entire families, especially pregnant women and children
• economically empower women, giving them more decision-making power in their households

We’d like to introduce you to the women who have been in our program and hear her story and challanges.

Goma: 

Life-long farmer amazed by her record harvest

 Goma has been farming for as long as she can remember. In fact, her parents kept her at home to work in the fields so she never had the chance to go to school. She is unable to read or write, and even struggles to write her own name. 

 Although this 49-year-old mother of two from Tingla village never attended school, she firmly believes in the importance of educating her own kids. Due to her lack of education, she says she sometimes has a hard time keeping up with conversations happening around her. She hopes for her children to be well educated so that they will be respected in society.

In the past, Goma had to rely on her husband to provide for all their financial needs, but in the last year she has started earning her own money. Since getting professional advice about how to maximize a plant’s yield, Goma said she was startled by how much output she was getting from the same crops she’d been farming for decades. “Of all my vegetable crops, my tomatoes did the best last year,” she informed us. “They grew so much that tomatoes started to drop from the plants and roll around on the floor!” 

 What’s a lady to do with so many tomatoes?

It was the biggest harvest she’s ever had .At first, she gave some to neighbors who didn’t have any. Then, she took a batch to the local market to sell. In addition, she started selling to outsiders who passed by her village, and she also made a trip to another village nearby to make some sales.

Before joining the Seeds of Hope program, Goma just grew enough food to feed her family. Now, she’s learning how to monetize the work she’s been doing her whole life for free. She said she’s grateful for the program’s training workshops that give live demonstrations and mostly verbal instructions so that people like her who are illiterate can also learn and benefit. The program has also taught her about how to grow new types of vegetables, and has given her ideas about how to sell her surplus produce.

Just beware of climate change…

One big issue that Goma and her peers all mentioned is changing weather patterns that seem to be altering the timing and amount of rainfall, snowfall and prolonged droughts. 

Goma is grateful, but hopes for more in life

In the three years since Seeds of Hope came to Tingla, Goma and other participants of the program have all reported positive changes in their lives. Now, they’re able to feed their families with an abundance of healthy fresh foods, and their community has started implementing strategies to generate more income locally.

 When asked what she dreams of doing in the future, however, Goma isn’t sure how to answer. “It’s hard to have a dream because I don’t know much, besides agriculture. If I could read and write and understand more, maybe I could get more ideas,” she replied wistfully. “So right now I’m just gonna stick to farming and see what I can do.”

Links:

• http://www.thesmallworld.org

Seeds of Hope Program

With the world in a slow but encouraging recovery post-Covid, Nepal’s remote Himalayan districts are in quite a different position with the economic crisis looming larger than ever and worsening deficits of reliable and sustainable means of support.

THE CAUSE

Though the issue of food availability has always been critical, the pandemic crisis compelled us to come up with a solution; we initiated the Seeds of Hope program to counter the worsening conditions during and after the damaging effects of Covid - and forever. Our resolve was strengthened when we found that 70% of women who joined could not buy enough food to last for more than two days for their household.

IMPACT

The driving force behind Seeds of Hope program is for self-sufficiency and sustainable assistance at all times, especially during any crises. Its hallmark benefits: farmers can provide fresh, healthy food for their families and communities; it fosters their sense of independence, pride and self-respect; and it provides economic empowerment and business skills as excess vegetables can be sold for profit.

THE CHALLENGES

With farmers worldwide on the frontline of the climate crisis, Himalayan farmers face similar trials with atypical floods, droughts, and storms, higher temperatures, and shifting rainfall patterns with excessively wet or dry periods; all have contributed to crop failures and critical food shortages.

To counter these issues, we resolved to build a greenhouse for over 100 farmers this year. Farmers are now also receive training on the effects of climate change and how they can use technology to adapt, such as soil mulching and rainwater harvesting.

Bhim from Tamakhani happily related, "Sometimes a heavy downpour and hailstones would destroy my field crops, and at other times [they] would fail due to water scarcity but, with a greenhouse, now our vegetables are safe.”

FOR THE WOMEN

After the Seeds of Hope program, many women took up farming as their main occupation, earning about RS 2,000 - RS 3,000 every month. Today, at least five to seven women in each village have shifted from subsistence farming to commercial farming - and the number is growing. Previously, these women had been completely dependent on their husbands and, with the loss of jobs during Covid, cash had been scarce. Now, they proudly share, they can buy stationery for their kids, pay school fees, and buy necessary household items.

"We all know that challenges often motivate us to be stronger,” said Puspa from Jaidu, "so I encourage every woman to stand up, to be strong, and never say, 'I can't do this!' Everything is possible when we believe that we can make a difference,” she continues. “Our group of 25 women not only produced enough vegetables for our families, but we also sold the surplus at market. We started our own savings as well. This gave us financial freedom, and along came the confidence of being able to stand up shoulder to shoulder with men in our community, where often women depend on men’s earnings."

Saraswati from Tingla commented, "Our parents used to farm as well, but farming crops and farming vegetables is different, I realized how many times a year we can harvest vegetables whereas we used to do only one crop a year. Using the help from agriculture experts and good seeds we can produce much more with the same effort. This has been wonderful learning for a farmer like me and everyone here."

Puspa and Saraswati’s stories exemplify just two of the 800 women enrolled in the Seeds of Hope program. The program has been so successful and inspirational for these women that, at the end of the meeting, there was strong encouragement and requests to continue the Seeds of Hope program to reach even more farmers.

How Would You Like to Participate in our 2022 Project?

We invite you, your family, and your community to consider supporting this very important and long-lasting project within the 2022-2023 season. 

Our budget to support a family is USD$200, which will provide a family with more than 10 different kitchen garden seeds; training by an agriculture expert; a greenhouse tunnel; group formations; leadership programs, etc.  Our goal is to benefit over 500 families. On average, each family has six members, so our plan would ultimately benefit over 3,000 individuals.