One of the best outcomes of this project is the knowledge the children are gaining about organic gardening. This is a skill set that will last them a lifetime and provide them the tools they need to help feed themselves and their families for years to come.
Our Young Smart Farmers are reaping the rewards of their dedication and hard work! It is so exciting to see their proud faces as they harvest their crops.
We are constantly working on expanding the gardens and providing new ideas for improving our growing methods.
We had one donor fund a special project working with blue net. It creates a growing area that is free from flying pests. (We have learned it does not protect from ants, who came in and stole our first crop of peanuts!)
We are also exploring greenhouses and vertical gardening. We will keep you up to date on progress we make with these new expansions of our children's organic gardens.
Thank you for your support, it means so much to all of our children, especially at dinner time when they are able to enjoy food that they grew themselves!
We are grateful for your past donations, and hope you will continue to help us expand our gardens!
Evelind and Michael
Rains have finally come and the children are excited to plant their new crops in their gardens.
We look forward to a variety of fresh foods come harvest time!
Which means it is time to put the finishing touches on our cold room construction.
We are very excited about the prototype cool storage design we are testing. Our Styrofoam bricks and cement provide so many benefits. Cheap, sustainable, environmentally friendly way to recycle Styrofoam through creation of multiple beneficial uses!
We are exploring other cheap, replicable, mobile “cool storage” containers. Keeping newly harvested foods fresh is a challenge for many farmers. With mobile cold storage availability, farmers would be able expand their market reach.
Our testing is showing very encouraging results. So good in fact we are considering the possibility of setting up a “Cool Storage Sustainable Social Enterprise”. This way many more people would be able to benefit. So keep an eye out for more updates on this exciting emerging project!
In the meantime, we have almost hit our funding goal for our Smart Young Farmers. Our choice is to end the project or increase the fundraising amount we need.
We are just getting started!
Our garden’s can continue to expand, offering a wealth of opportunity for organic gardening experience for the kids.
How far can they take it?
Will they get to a point where leadership emerges and excess harvest can be turned into a business for the children?
Why would we stop now!
This also provides the opportunity to continue to develop the cold storage possibilities utilizing Styrofoam bricks and concrete.
August 12-16 GlobalGiving is sponsoring their Little by Little campaign. Now is the time to send us a message. Your small donation will go farther, and we will know we have your continued support to see this project through as far as it can go!
Thank you for your support,
Michael and Evelind
Our Young Smart Farmers are anxiously awaiting the rains so they can begin to plant the next crops. Each child has his/her own plot of land with their name on it. Every single child living at Warm Heart is involved and excited about their organic gardens.
How they work their plots is up to them. Some may work in teams and share the work of their combined plots, others will choose to work individually.
When the time comes to reap their labor of love we will be ready for them!
Our new kitchen project is almost completed. The last stage is to finish the "cooler" rooms. They are both framed and ready for insulation. One will be used to store rice, the second room will be for storing fresh vegetables and other perishables.
We sincerely appreciate everyone's help to make this dream a reality. We are very close to completely funding the project!
If the rains don't come soon, we may have to organize a community wide rain dance!
Links:
We are still reeling from the generosity you all showed during out recent Smart Young Farmers campaign.
Giddy as we may be, however, we have been hard at work. The children’s gardens have spread like ivy. Virtually every open sunny space is now lined, rank upon rank, with beautiful heads of lettuce, elegant garlic tops, spreading squash leaves or emerging onion shoots. Every Saturday at dawn – before it gets too hot – the fields are full of kids, laughter and a lot of weed throwing and water spraying.
As for the new kitchen cold room, the money has arrived and the plans are in the hands of the contractor to confirm the design and budget. The new cold room to store the gardens’ bounty is the talk of the staff. The design calls for a sub-floor, external walls and roof made of the Styrofoam cement we use to make bricks for construction. (The inside will be lined with hard foam insulation) The kids are all excited that construction is about to start since there will otherwise be a lot of lettuce to eat all at once.
It has been a terrific experience for the kids, they have learned so much about how to grow their own food, a valuable skill that will last them a lifetime. Both the boys and girls have participated in this project.
Our girls, however, have higher inspirations. They are working hard in school, hoping to continue on with higher education to pursue their individual dreams. When GlobalGiving announced their Girls Fund competition we knew we had to enter. We are always scrambling to cover the cost of higher education for these high achievers.
Our new campaign Empower Young Girls to Achieve a Successful Career kicks off today and runs for two weeks. We are vying for one of the top spots to win funding for one year from GlobalGiving’s ongoing Girls Fund campaign. Each donation counts as a vote, whether it is a $10 donation, or a $1,000 donation. So we are going after the ”votes”, and asking all of our friends to make a $10 donation to our project to help us win. We would appreciate your “vote” as well.
P.S. Thank you for your support, it means the world to us.
Links:
You Are Simply Amazing! Thank you!
On November 27th, GivingTuesday, we launched our Giving Season campaign through GlobalGiving. We had 3 goals, and we reached all 3 in the first 24 hours!
Goal 1 - Raise $7,500 so we could finally do a much needed remodel on our kitchen. One of the motivations for moving this project to the top of our list was to support the burgeoning Young Smart Farmers project here at Warm Heart. With your help we will be able to extend our kitchen, add refrigeration and storage space. We will now be able safely store and use the wonderful bounty harvested from the Young Smart Farmers project. The kids are learning a great skill, and feel positive and excited about being able to contribute fresh food to our kitchen. Thank you!
Goal 2 - Win a GlobalGiving Bonus - Launch day of the Giving Season was also a GlobalGiving sponsored contest, with cash awards We came in 4th and were awarded a $1,000 bonus!
Goal 3 - Qualify to become a permanent member of the Global Giving Community - we had until December 31 to have 40 donors raise a minimum of $5,000. In the first 24 hours we had 61 donors contribute $7,855.
Since we met our target so quickly, we are able to expand our original goal.
Our greatest need is always to cover the expense of our Children's Homes.
We cover a portion of costs through a Sponsorship Program, but not every child has a sponsor, and sponsorship does not cover all costs (i.e. medical emergencies and dental issues). So we appeal to people like you, who enjoy the warm glow feeling that comes from knowing you are actually making a difference in a child’s life. We do all the hard day to day work, but we could not do it without your help.
Thank you for helping with the success of Young Smart Farmers project. We are so grateful and excited to complete our project!
You can help even further by sharing on your social media our new campaign to raise additional funds for the children:
Project Reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you will get an e-mail when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports via e-mail without donating.
We'll only email you new reports and updates about this project.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
Make a monthly donation & get 
