Successful Sustainability
June 24, 2013
Our Nutrition project in Guatemala addresses some of the most pressing issues in development today.
Indigenous farmers are being pushed off their traditional lands due to land grabs by large agricultural corporations. The farmers now find themselves unable to grow food on their own lands, so they work growing cash crops such as carnations and brussels sprouts for export. But they are having trouble making ends meet, and they and their families face periods of real hunger between cash crop harvests.
Since 2002, Change for Children has constructed four elementary schools in the region. At each school there is now a garden that grows food for the students and teachers, shares seeds and harvests with the students’ families, and encourages local food growing, production and consumption. Students have learned about how to grow higher yield crops on smaller parcels of land, how to use organic fertilizers and how to companion plant.
In 1992 CFC helped to build a women’s weaving cooperative, which continues to function to this day, employing local women in their artisan projects. Recent earthquakes have damaged the building that houses the weaving cooperative. CFC is working to collect funds to repair this building.
Please support our projects in Guatemala.
Central America and the Caribbean Construction Food Sovereignty Guatemala In The Field Indigenous Peoples School