COVID19 Home Gardening for 50 Cambodian Families

Meet Mai, our Home Food Garden Participant

A 50-year-old, Mai, is a housewife living in one of the most vulnerable families in rural area with her husband and her daughter. Her husband has been partially deaf since birth, which prevented him from doing some work. Currently, their main income depends on her daughter who works as a construction worker, but the pandemic has affected her job which she cannot earn regular income like before.

With the collaboration with the village chief, we selected Mai to participate in our home food garden project. She attended our short training on basic home garden and financial literacy at our center. After training, she received farming resources such seeds, fertilizer, and some tools.

Mai didn’t wait for long after training and receiving resources, she started to grow vegetables on her free small space of land at her house. Two months later, she had the nutritious vegetables to eat and sell. She sold the surplus vegetables to the local sellers and villagers and earns around $7 per week, which can buy more food and ingredients.

“I am very happy to join this program because this is my first time growing vegetables at home.  I gained good knowledge from the training and mentoring, and received farming resources, which I can grow at least for one year. Thank you so much for your support.”

Links:

• Take a short tour to visit Mai's garden

This is a story of one of our home food garden participants who have improved their lives.

*Sophan is one of vulnerable families in rural of Puok district. She is a mother of three children. She is a housewife and her husband is a construction worker. The pandemic has affected to her husband’s job, which caused her family facing financial issue.

With collaboration with the village chief, we found Sophan and selected her to participate in our home food garden project.

Sophan joined our short training on basic of home garden and financial literacy at our center. After training, she received farming materials, fertilizer, and five packs of vegetable seed including bitter melon, long beans, cucumber, Chinese green and chili.

Two month later, she has had nutritious vegetables to eat in the family, reducing her expenses. Also, she also can earn income for around $4 per week through selling the surplus, so she can buy rice and ingredients.

“After joining the program, I have had vegetables to eat and sell. I have saved some of my family’s expenses and also increased my knowledge on growing vegetables. I am so grateful for this support, and I am going to continue it to help my family.”

MANY MORE FAMILIES ARE IN NEED OF SUPPORT. PLEASE JOIN WITH US TODAY!

*Name has changed for privacy purpose.

Links:

• A nice video of our home garden participant

Leab is a 58-year old widow who was earning USD$1.25 a day making rattan baskets. The pandemic wiped out her only source of income, causing immense financial stress and food insecurity.

 In early 2021, our team was made aware of Leab’s situation through the Village Chief. They provided her with an emergency food pack, then in May, with funding from the Goodridge Foundation, Leab partook in the Home Food Garden Project.

 Leab’s land is quite small but because her Village Chief loaned his own unused land to grow a large quantity of vegetables, Leab could get a second chance.

 Leab sells her surplus vegetables to a wholesaler in her village, and has doubled her pre-pandemic income.

 “Through attending the program, I received farming materials, fertilizer, and five types of seeds including salad, sponge gourd, wax gourd, winter melon and mustard green. I also gained new knowledge on growing vegetables, how to make compost fertilizer and natural pesticide. I am so happy and grateful for your support because now I can feed myself, earn money to pay my debts and support my family."

TAKE A TOUR TO LEAB'S GARDEN BY CLICKING HERE.

We plan to support 300 more families in 2022, so please join with us to help these families increase income and food production.

Thank you so much!

To date, Human and Hope Association has supported 468 families so far with our home garden project, which increased food production and income for vulnerable families impacted by Covid-19.

Let's meet Phalla, one of our home garden participants.

Phalla (given name), a 55-year-old woman, living in a big family of six members, including her husband and her five children. All her children got married and live separately. Currently, she lives with her 60-year-old husband in a small house, making Khmer cake to sell in the village. She can earn little money from her business and the outbreak of Covid-19 made her more difficult to earn income because people don’t spend much as before.

Through working with the village chief, we found Phalla at home and selected her to participate in our program after having the interview about her need and willingness. She has joined our training at our center with other participants and received farming resources such as seed, fertilizer and some farming materials after training. In addition to learning basic of chemical free farming, she also learned addition courses on environment focusing on the 3Rs and Covid-19 prevention.After learning and receiving the seed and resources, she immediately started her garden. For just around three weeks, she has harvested her morning glory and then other vegetables such as gourd, sponge gourd, winged bean, green onions, and egg plants.

As she usually rides her bike to sell her Khmer cake everyday, she also brings her vegetables to sell around the villages. She can earn on average $4USD from her sale per day and some days $5 to $7.50, which doubles her income. Besides selling, she can use her vegetables for her daily family’s meal, which provided a good nutrition.

“Through participating the program, I increased new knowledge on how to grow the vegetables, especially making compost fertilizer and land preparing. I didn’t have any troubles with garden. I feel so happy and grateful that the NGO supported me because I could earn more income for the family.”

Enjoy watching her video!

We plan to support 350 more vulnerable families with home garden, providing them training, mentoring, seed, fertilzer, and materials to start their gardens at home, so they can produce more food and income for the families.

PLEASE DONATE TO OUR FUNDRAISER, SO WE CAN CONTINUE OUR INCREDIBLE WORK!

Thank you so much.

Best wishes,

Team HHA

In 2020, we supported 168 vulnerable families with home garden through providing them hands-on training, support and providing them seeds, fertilizer, and farming resources to start their own gardens. As a result, 100% of them have improved knowledge on basic gardening skills, and increased food production and income for the families during the challenging times of the pandemic. This is a nice project to support people who willing to help themselves. This year, 2021, we aim to support 400 families with home gardens, so please help us to help our local community to ensure their food security during this pandemic.

We would like to share with you a nice story of one of the families who participated in our program.

Bopha* has four members in her family, her husband, and her two small children. Living in a rural area, Bopha works as a housewife and takes care of her children. Her husband is a carpenter. Due to COVID-19, her husband can just earn little money, so her family is in trouble.

Working with the village chief, we found Bopha to participate in our home garden program. Bopha just grew some kind of herbs on the bottles before, but never grow many types of vegetables. When we told her about our program, she was very happy and eager to join the program with the expectation that she can have food to eat and also can help her husband to earn money to support the family.

Bopha joined our home garden training courses at our center and received seed, fertilizers, and other farming materials to start her gardens. After receiving the resources, Bopha didn't wait, she started her garden work at her home immediately with the support from our staff. The first job was to make the compost fertilizer using the knowledge she learned from the training. Then followed by land preparing, vegetable beds preparing, and seed planting. She grew many types of vegetables and herbs, everywhere on her small land, on the ground, on the vegetable beds, in the bags, and on the bottles. With her great skill and the support from our staff, her gardens had been growing healthy.

A few months later, she could harvest them for her daily cook with good nutritious meals and also earned some money from the sales. Bopha is very happy that she could join our home garden program and said, she will continue to grow vegetables at home because it is good for the family.

Here is a short video of her garden.

*Name was changed for privacy purposes.

Please join us to empower our local community through home gardening!