Help Raise 50K for Haitian Farmers to fight Hunger

Training 10 More Schools to Plant Gardens

Thank you for your generous support for Friends of Matènwa’s GlobalGiving project to fight hunger. We are grateful for your generosity and your solidarity!

A growing number of school gardens are being launched by schools that are partners with the Matenwa Community Learning Center on Lagonav, becoming one of the most visible new signs of hope. The harvest from these gardens not only fills the empty stomachs of school children, it fills their minds with creativity and wonder. 

This fall we started training 10 more schools on Lagonav Island in how to plant and maintain school gardens. Planting small vegetable gardens in rural schools engages students in participatory, discovery-based learning methodologies and empowers parents to get involved in their children’s education. The gardens are also a source of healthy food in impoverished communities.

The 10 new schools started out by planting tomatoes, cabbage, and peppers. 

Site visits are conducted with participating schools, giving agricultural technicians and teacher trainers the opportunity to underpin teachers’ capacity to implement lessons using the gardens as learning laboratories and to reinforce teachers’ and students’ skills in sustainable agriculture. 

Students are encouraged to replicate their new skills to plant vegetable gardens at home too. This is the second year we’ve had preschoolers learn to plant in the garden at the Matènwa Community Learning Center too. One of the photos is of the garden in front of their classroom. They’ve planted peppers.

Teachers and principals are coached to make plans to facilitate school gardens to become a revenue source for schools too.

Experimenting With Planting Grains

Normally we’ve focused on planting vegetables but this year we are experimenting with planting grains like millet, which is a staple.

Because of the present insecurity, staples like millet, rice, and cornmeal are getting very expensive and less is being transported to the island, so the Matènwa school is trying to grow some of its own.

What School Directors are Saying About the Training

“Words are not sufficient to express my happiness and satisfaction stemming from our partnership with the Matènwa Community Learning Center. First, the training I received from [the project] – despite all the experience I have – helped me to see how much I didn’t know. I now feel so much better prepared as a principal to manage my school. Through this program, I have really mastered what it means to be a school principal. Through the training, I’ve come to transform several misconceptions I had, and I’ve seen the same thing in my teachers. This has especially been evident in the school garden project. Before [the project], we didn’t think that school gardens were important. We didn’t believe in school gardens. Now, thanks to the training, we’ve experienced so many advantages from our school garden. Thanks to this program, we will continue on this path and keep our school strong. Thank you!”

- Kely, Principal, Nouvèl Vizyon School, Nan Kafe, Lagonav Island, Haiti

“I’ve been teaching for more than 20 years. I now feel like I’ve done something wrong. I truly was not prepared to be a quality teacher. The training I’ve received through [the project] has helped me to see this. I used to think I was a good teacher. I came to see that I wasn’t. I have really enjoyed how the trainers have led us to learn, respecting us all no matter what level of education we have. I have been farming for a long time. I have learned so much from [the project’s] agricultural technicians. I have learned so much about how to prepare and teach lessons. Thank you for all of it. I promise to apply everything I’ve learned!”

- Delcarme, Teacher, Nazarèt School, Mon Repo, Lagonav Island, Haiti

Thank You

School gardens feed young bodies, but they also feed the rural soul, promising that life there is as important as it is in the city. They give students and their families a reason and a means to stay and contribute to their own community, which helps the entire community flourish.

Links:

• Visit our website to learn more about school gardens!

Thank you for your generous support for Friends of Matènwa's GlobalGiving project "Help Raise 50k for Haitian Farmers to fight Hunger."

There’s progress to report in the effort to to create 126 school and family gardens as a sustainable solution to La Gonave's food problem.

From October through December 2022, staff with La Gonave's Institute of Learning at the Matènwa Community Learning Center made 24 visits to 13 schools, training 41 educators in how to plan and maintain a school garden.

We began by going over the first steps to preparing a school garden: measuring, fencing, and preparing the seed.

We were not able to give out garden tools and seed during this quarter because of the violence and insecurity on the mainland. Two of our staff did go to Port-au-Prince to bring school materials back, and they were kidnapped and robbed. We suspended all trips as a result.

We did meet with teachers and school directors to plan out the activities they needed to do in order to create an organic garden at their school.

First, we talked about the importance of fencing in your organic garden, especially because it is a vegetable garden.

Then, we talked about the type of material to use. We use live-fencing such as bushes or candelabra cactus. These types of trees and plants keep out animals and thieves.

After that, we taught teachers how to germinate seeds in pots and cans that had been

We presented what kind of organic fertilizer to use for germinating seed.

We had teachers identify different seeds and encouraged them to use local seed in order to avoid chemicals and be able to conserve seed for the next season.

Next they learned how to make a simple garden bed in which to germinate. After that we discussed what natural insecticide they could make and how much to use to protect their seedlings.

We also had them work in the organic garden and learn how to make compost.

Every time the teachers and directors come for training to the Matènwa Community Learning Center, we bring them into the garden to motivate them. They take notes on points about making a garden, then we discuss the questions they have about the garden.

Each school garden is created so that every student has a one meter square plot to plant four seeds or seedlings.

We explained how the students should take responsibility for watering, fertilizing, removing insects, and recording the growth of their plants – using illustrations and notes – until the vegetables are ready to be harvested.

We also encourage parents to make a small family garden at home to encourage their children to garden. We explain the importance of organic gardens and the disadvantages of vegetables that come from the mainland.

The teachers and directors learned more about how to prepare compost too. They also learned how to prepare two types of garden beds. We talked about how to take care of new seedlings and how to prepare fertilizer for transplantation.

From March through June 2023 we made 19 additional visits to train educators in school gardens.

Our goal during this period was to ensure that nutrition education in schools provides learners with the knowledge, skills and motivation to make wise dietary and lifestyle choices, building a strong basis for a healthy and active life.

This is what we observed of teachers and students during these visits:

• They are teaching their students about nutrition so that they have an understanding of it. This gives students motivation to work in the garden so that they are getting the nutritional foods that they need in order to build a foundation for a healthy and active life.
• We have observed that the children are very comfortable working in the garden with their classroom teachers.
• Teachers now know how to water plants, make garden beds, grow seedlings, transplant seedlings, and compost.
• They also know what time of day to look for insects and kill them before they ruin the plants.
• Teachers now know seasonal plants, when to plant and when to harvest.

Links:

• Get the latest from Matenwa on our website.
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