As our 'Food for a better future' project draws to a close, Karina sends this update on her latest activities:
Last week we carried out monitoring visits in Partido, Loma de Cabrera and Restauración, visiting families benefiting from small family gardens and chicken raising activities. The results are positive and we keep trying to establish agreements with the Ministry of Agriculture, in order to provide more inputs for the installation of gardens and small livestocks.
Constructing solar ovens
This week we did a workshop with migrant families linked to ASOMELIN, showing them how to construct a solar oven with cardboard, aluminum and ovenbags for less than 1 GB Pound. During the workshop we prepared cornbread and potatoes on one of the model ovens which provoked suprised faces - and everybody agreed that the solar bread tasted better than the one we baked in a normal oven to compare!
And eco stoves...
We also constructed ecological stoves called "Roque" with some basic materials (large aluminum can, brick, cement and a piece of iron as an outlet for ash). This costs about 5 GBP in total and uses five times less charcoal than normal stoves, which has positive effects on the reduction of deforestation activities.
The families are so enthusiastic about the new cooking spaces and the demand is huge. The funds left for this activity are limited and we can achieve about 100 solar ovens and ecological kitchens.
Distributing seeds for family gardens
On the other hand we tried out the seeds we got from the Ministry of Agriculture, in order to check the germination capacity before distributing the seeds in the communities. The families are awaiting the seeds to start the new production cycle in their family gardens.
Our current food security project with development workers Karina, Bernardo and Gabriel is now drawing to a close - but you can still donate to support our work with poor and marginalised people and communities - we will continue to support families to grow their way out of poverty.
Photo: Karina with an eco-stove.
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