Seeds and Skills for Women to Grow Vegetables

Hi folks,

Today’s update comes from Kathy Barrera, the Program Director with Hope Opens Doors in Nigeria. Hope Opens Doors works with Mothers Welfare Group, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing care for some of the most vulnerable women and children in rural Northern Nigeria. Many of the people they serve have been displaced by violence, which has forced them to leave behind livelihoods and the means for providing for themselves and their families. This same violence also destroys crops, which disrupts the supply chain and makes it harder for everyone to access food. In a situation like this, vegetable seeds are a valuable resource.

Kathy Barrera wrote us recently to share their plans for the SPI vegetable seed they received earlier this year. She says:

“We have planted some seeds to get started. At the five sites, we planted green beans in Kuta and one farm at the school and also some family plots. In Sanban they planted Laraba spinach, amaranth, and local greens as well. We grow Chaya [a kind of leafy green] and mornings for soups. At our house, we planted a lot of mustard and turnip greens, plus beans, and amaranth beside the beans. If the rains start letting up, we will plant the tomatoes, okra, and pumpkins…”

About those rains — she writes that vegetables are usually planted in September at the end of the Northern Nigerian rainy season to avoid water rot. There are usually only three rains in October, which are called Sweet Potato Rains since that’s usually enough to grow tuber vegetables. However, the rainy season has extended into November this year, making farming difficult. She’s happy to report that the seeds are germinating well despite the rains!

Gardens are only one part of the services offered by Mothers Welfare Group and Hope Opens Doors. They also serve children and adults with special needs, providing housing, education, and healthcare in addition to their rural development projects. Looking ahead, their agricultural program will be trying new ways of growing vegetables. Like some of our other partners, they’ll be using old grain bags to grow vertical bag gardens.

The attached photos show some of the harvest from the garden. Kathy included a beautiful photo of Annie, smiling with a fistful of greens:

“Annie has cerebral palsy, but that does not stop her from harvesting mustard greens, turnip greens, amaranth, and okra for the Sunday chicken stir fry.”

Your generous support of this project put seeds in the hands of Kathy and Annie. From them, from Hope Opens Doors, and from us here at SPI, thank you.

— Team SPI

Hi folks,

We recently heard from Safe Hands for Girls, our partner working in The Gambia. Safe Hands for Girls accomplishes important work in The Gambia, Sierra Leone, and Atlanta USA, fighting female genital mutilation / cutting (FGM/C) and child marriage. Founded in 2013 by Jaha Dukureh, a Gambian woman, Safe Hands for Girls advocates for women and girls through a combination of education, community discussion, and local and national legislative advocacy.

Jaha and Safe Hands for Girls often visit communities with a high percentage of women and girls affected by FGM/C to hold community discussions that include everyone affected by FGM/C: girls and women who have been cut, women who cut, village leaders, and community clerics. Jaha and Safe Hands for Girls are effective precisely because they foster these relationships. Changing cultural traditions is difficult, and they are slowly facilitating healthy change through their work.

Because the short- and long-term effects of FGM/C are severe — shock, hemorrhaging, infection, and anemia are a few of the effects — nutrition is a critical for both girls recovering from recently being cut and women whose immune systems have been compromised from being cut. SPI partnered with Safe Hands for Girls in 2018 as a way to complement the work they were already doing by establishing community vegetable gardens for women. Not only do gardens provide important nutrition, but they can provide a livelihood alternative for cutters who depend on income from the practice. Economic freedom also helps women throughout the community claim more power over their own lives.

Safe Hands for Girls writes:

“It is with extreme gratitude that [these communities] acknowledge and thank you for your services and support to the women groups. The Seed Programs Initiative partnership with safe Hands For Girls has supported and empowered women by giving them financial independence.

After handing over of the donated seeds, Safe Hands for Girls CEO (Jaha Dukureh) through the organisation funded the digging of 6 wells/ boreholes for easier access to water. This request was made by the women during a follow up visit by the team after the seed donation, the women cited the need for water and how it has affected the garden, the garden is about 275m by 175m square approximately. 

[...]

Thank you again for your service, your thoughtfulness means so much to our organisation and the women we serve. We care deeply about the communities we serve and we appreciate your commitment to helping us serve to an even greater capacity.

I have attached some photos of the garden and the amazing women who work on them.”

Safe Hands for Girls is changing lives and traditions, and safeguarding the lives of generations of women to come. You can see the garden and the amazing women who work on them attached to this report. Your gift supports gardens like this and our work with partners like Safe Hands for Girls.

From us, and from Safe Hands for Girls, thank you.

— The SPI Team

Hi folks,

Today’s project update comes from GrowEastAfrica, an SPI partner who works with IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) families in Soyama, Ethiopia. If their name sounds familiar, that’s because we’ve been working with them since 2016 back when they were DBCO, and we’ve shared some of their story before.

“GrowEastAfrica’s agricultural projects work with vulnerable farmers, many of whom are women, by training them in improved practical agricultural methods, helping them access quality agricultural inputs and technology, and linking them to viable markets. Such efforts help farmers grow more food for themselves or to sell. In doing so, farmers are able to prevent hunger, preserve land for future use, and obtain long lasting food security.” — Yohannes Chonde

GrowEastAfrica’s co-founder, Yohannes Chonde, has adapted their programs over the years to meet the most urgent needs of the families they serve. They not only provide a short-term solution for folks who are fleeing their homes and establishing new lives, but they are moving toward long-term solutions that enroll and integrate local communities in ways that benefit both groups.

For instance, water is scarce in Ethiopia, and water access is critical for everyone — not just farmers. Rather than competing with the community, they’ve worked to establish reliable water sources for their farmers in collaboration with the local community.

Yohannes knows that access to farming resources — like good seed, tools, and training — can change life for someone who has been displaced. To be clear, these resources are not a handout. Farming is hard work that requires both manual labor and expertise. GrowEastAfrica’s programs strive not only to provide access to resources, but also to educate and train farmers who can pass on their knowledge and training to other farmers.

Fate is one farmer who has forged a new livelihood from the resources and education she accessed through GrowEastAfrica. Fleeing dangerous conditions, she left everything behind to start her life over in Soyama. Soon after arriving, Fate participated in farming and postharvest training with the Soyama Women’s Association offered by GrowEastAfrica in collaboration with the Burji District Agricultural Department. As one of the first participants, she’s witnessed how her community has changed because of GrowEastAfrica and her community’s determination to reestablish themselves:

“Just a few years ago, we were a community that was worried about what we would eat tomorrow and what the future looks like. … Today, not only are we growing our own food, but we're making plans for the future of our people and our community.”

Fate’s journey is one of survival and resilience. Building upon her training, she’s stepped into leadership with her Association to increase her community’s self-reliance:

“We are creating markets for ourselves, we're inspiring and empowering each other, and we're saving money and contributing to our own development. … We’re building on what we’ve already accomplished to include neighboring villages and communities. Hope has come back to us, and we hope to grow our project so everyone — us, our communities, our villages and our country — can become fully self-reliant.”

Fate and her Association are continually seeking new ways to learn and grow. Working with GrowEastAfrica, they are refining the Association’s supply chain to reach larger markets. They recently visited a commercial farm to see different techniques demonstrated that they can incorporate into their own practices. Photos from that visit are attached to this report.

Your support makes these programs possible. Thank you. Earlier this year, Fate shared a letter of gratitude for your support and the partnership between SPI and GrowEastAfrica. We’ll leave you with her words.

“Because of the support from Seed Programs International and Yohannes, we now have access to water where there was none. ... Thank you for choosing to invest in our community and in our well-being. We are going to be good stewards of your trust and your resources and will continue to share updates of our growth and successes, as well as challenges, for many years to come.”

The SPI Team

P.S. If you’d like to read more frequent updates about GrowEastAfrica, they will be featured in our new Gardens Give Hope, Health, and Income in E. Africa project here on GlobalGiving.

Hi folks,

This month, our update comes from Tecpan, Guatemala, where a group of Mayan women have recently begun gardening again with SPI’s support. These farmers aren’t newcomers—in addition to their traditional knowledge, most have vegetable-growing experience from a program that was supported by Wendy de Berger, the First Lady of Guatemala from 2004 - 2008.

When the government changed, support for this program was ended and the Tecpan farmer’s gardens went fallow without access to good seed. However, their group didn’t disband. Led by Paula López, women continued to meet regularly to preserve their Mayan culture and find ways to support each other. Gardens are one way to facilitate the preservation and transmission of traditional knowledge and also provide nutrition and income to communities. This is such an important activity for people whose communities and cultures have been disrupted by generations of political violence aimed at destroying their identity.

With your support, we were able to provide Paula with good seed. The group immediately gathered to determine how best to share radish, cucumber, eggplant, cabbage, and carrot seeds amongst the 55 women. Over several meetings, Paula distributed the seed and reviewed basic planting instructions. These are strong, self-organized women, and they only needed access to a few resources to re-establish their gardening program.

Since most of the women already have gardening knowledge and experience, Paula led several discussions about post-harvest topics like how to cook and incorporate new vegetables into a traditional Mayan diet. She also encouraged the farmers to favor a native Guatemalan cuisine that features natural, unprocessed ingredients like fruits and vegetables instead of relying on processed foods. If that sounds like a boring meeting to you, we can assure you it wasn’t. After discussing the project, the women played traditional games, sung Mayan songs, and danced!

“This project has the potential to benefit the women’s group in Tecpan in many ways, for example, it will help foster connection with the mother earth, team work, and family work, as well as, increase the production of food without insecticides. People will to learn and get used to having a garden at home and saving money. But the one of the most important benefits is that this project will help the women and families eat healthier by consuming products that come from the earth. The women are very happy about this project.” — Paula López, Women's Group & Gardening Project Leader

We’re proud to partner with Paula and the Tecpan Women’s Group and hope to see the project grow in the coming year. You might remember Naima and Nancee’s visit with Pop Atz’iak in San Cristobal, a Mayan women’s group who similarly established a gardening program with support from SPI. Both Nancee and SPI volunteer Alejandra Sanchez have visited with the women and Alejandra’s report is promising.

“After my most recent visit to Guatemala, I have very high hopes for the gardening project in Tecpan. Paula is a woman that learned from a very young age how to garden, and all the women in the Tecpan group also have some sort of experience in gardening. After talking to some of them, it became evident that they know very well what they are doing, and everyone is excited about the project. Some were already planning on selling the surplus of the harvest and using that profit to buy more seeds and make the project bigger.” — Alejandra Sanchez, SPI Volunteer

As always, thank you for your support. A little goes a long way with determined people who just need good seed to transform their communities. Again, thank you!

The SPI Team

Hi everyone,

Today’s update comes from Daniel Wanjama, Seed Savers Network Kenya (SSNK) Founder and Director. SSNK is a grassroots NGO headquartered southeast of Nakuru in Gilgil who works with resource-poor farmers to promote sustainable rural livelihoods. SSNK has strong support for women’s groups, providing access to agricultural training, good vegetable seed, tools, and other resources — you might remember Esther from our update early last year. We recently had the privilege of hearing several stories from Daniel’s work with the Gatume Women’s Group.

The Gatume Women’s Group

Women in the Gatume Women’s Group have traditionally farmed grains, primarily varieties of beans and maize. After connecting with Daniel and SSNK, some of the women started growing vegetables using seed provided by this project. Combined with training and support from agronomist extension visits, they had what they needed for the work ahead.

Ann, whose nursery is pictured in this update, began experimenting with coriander (or parsley). Coriander is often chosen as a livelihood crop since it requires less land than other crops and can be sold for a decent amount of money. Income is an important component for a farmer’s resilience because it transforms their gardening labor into the power of choice. With extra income, a farmer can keep her children in school, buy medicine, improve her home, and buy other kinds of food to round out her and her family’s diet. In the first season, Ann was able to sell her coriander to bring in extra income.

Ann shares, “Before I met the Seed Savers staff, I used to plant only maize and beans on my farm. I had not made any profit in the last two years, and an outbreak of Maize Lethal Necrosis Disease during drought made farming my three acres of land impossible. However, I was able to irrigate my smaller vegetable garden. So far, I haven’t needed to buy coriander at market, and instead I’m able to sell my extra coriander on my farm to bring in money each day.”

Following her success, Ann wants to expand her garden next season and plant another vegetable variety. This will not only supplement her meals and provide additional income, but it will provide others in her community with access to that vegetable. Ann is bolstering her livelihood, strengthening her family, and contributing to a strong community, all with one garden!

If you can’t grow out, grow up!

SSNK works with farmers in several regions and has lately specialized a program to support farmers with a passion for agriculture, but with limited access to land. The program’s motto is: if you can’t grow out, grow up! SSNK now offers training in vertical bag gardens, which have a relatively small footprint, but offer enough surface area for a one- to two-vegetable kitchen garden.

Farmers come to SSNK’s demonstration garden to learn how to create a bag garden, and then head home to set up their own. Lucy is one farmer who has attended the training, and you can see her bag garden in the attached photo. So far, she’s growing enough kale and spinach for herself and her family.

SSNK actively innovates, borrows, and adapts ideas to the region where they work and the famers they work alongside. They’re one example of a local organization taking the lead on putting power back in the hands of local farmers and families. We’re proud to work with them, and we hope you are, too!

Even a small gift goes a long way for SSNK, facilitating better access to food, income, and the power of choice. From our staff, and from SSNK and their farmers, thank you for your continued support of this project.

The SPI Team