Where: Mata de Platano, Honduras
Area of Solutions: Sustainable cities and communities, Involvement of local communities and indegenious peoples, Agriculture
Communities like Mata de Plátano, Honduras, already faced dire situations before the pandemic, which only became graver, directly affecting the community and families as they no longer had the resources to survive. To help combat the problem, the San José Family Center, a NPH community program located in the village, created a “Food Parcel Program” and not only provided food supplies for five months to low-income families in the communities, but helped them create their own family gardens providing an integral education about agriculture and sustainability, while also feeding the families.
In all the communities of the valley, NPH has supported a total of 1917 people, 493 families with 750 children and youth and 378 elderly. There are 179 families that have been benefited specifically through the Food Parcel Program, several of which have already had their first harvest. In the coming months, the staff from the San José Family Center will be supervising the plots and empowering the benefactors to replicate the techniques and resources with more families from the communities. The seed basket for the individual family garden, in addition to herbs, contains: tomatoes, onions, carrots, pepper, cucumber, and beets.
The Food Parcel Program trained families to utilize their land to grow crops on a small budget, with the aim for families to save 40 - 50 Lempiras (approximately US$1.66 – US$2.07) a day. The families receive the seeds and learn how to sow them, ensuring that all members can play a part in harvesting and maintaining the land. The group received a total of 16 hours of workshops, 12 were theory-based, and four practice. They are learning valuable skills that can be applied to their life even if they aren’t working in agriculture. This program continues to make a difference to their lives and “feed” their dreams of a better future.
One major obstacle was being at the mercy of weather. Lack of funding has also played a role and NPH worries about pests that could affect crops.
Video provided by NPH
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