Build School Gardens for 1800 Youth in Burundi

Since the beginning of 2017 there have been approximately 5,000,000 clinical cases of malaria registered across Burundi. Our Burundi 4-H Sister Schools are situated in one of the hardest hit areas of the malaria epidemic. Malaria is directly linked to food insecurity and malnutrition. Burundi 4-H School Gardens are playing a vital role in reducing the vulnerability of children by giving students the skills and materials needed to plant, grow and harvest their own vegetables, thus, improving their overall health and resistance to deadly diseases such as malaria. In turn these students are sharing what they learn with their families and communities, improving the health of everyone.

Several months ago, one of our Burundi 4-H staff members and some of his family contracted malaria. The disease slowed him down for a while but thankfully he is now well because he was able to obtain the right medicine and had access to healthy food. This is s a stark reminder about how important good nutrition is, especially for children, in fighting deadly diseases.

Because of the ongoing donor support and commitment, our Burundi 4-H Sister Schools have been able to begin their 3^rd year of using the 4-H Gardening Curriculum in their classrooms and gardening labs. Students at the four schools are excited to get back to school and the gardens. With your support, teachers will be introducing the gardening concept to more than 600 elementary students during this school year! Over the next 9 months students will learn all about soil preparation, seed planting, cultivation, harvesting, and food preparation while also improving their skills in language, geography, mathematics, science and social studies . The greatest part of this process is that the students will be actively putting into practice, in the gardens, the concepts they are learning in the classrooms.

Thank you for your continuing support of the Burundi 4-H School Gardens Program.