American parents might bond with their children by taking them along to farmers’ markets and showing them how to make potted plants. However, in other parts of the world, plants can help to keep families together.
For example, Ecuadorean children were often left behind while their parents went to work. Many children stopped going to school because they had to care for the house while their parents were gone. ChildFund International, a non-profit organization that works with children as well as families, local organizations, and communities to create environments for children to thrive, took a unique community-wide approach to solving the problem. It started a garden.
ChildFund Ecuador began training the community in vegetable and flower cultivation as well as business administration. ChildFund assisted in the development of a local bank that provided loans to local fathers to help them build greenhouses for tomatoes, carnations, and roses. More than 285 families use their greenhouses to earn their primary income. Parents don’t need to move to the cities to work and their children can go to school.
Mujeres Emprendedoras Mayas, also known as Actively Engaged Mayan Women (Mujeres Emprendedoras Mayas), use micro tunnels, which are miniature greenhouses, to grow tomatoes. They create income and increase food security for themselves and their families. Women who are able to generate their own income also have the ability to provide better care for their children.
ChildFund Uganda has helped children and their families plant more than 10,000 eucalyptus tree and 5,000 pine trees in two new forests. New forests offer inexpensive firewood, protection from soil erosion, and an economic boost in an area with low quality of life. The trees also provide timber for housing, and provide an alternative to environmental degradation.
“Forests will be a major source of timber, which will be mainly used in house construction, and houses are very important to us,”Nalubega Florence, 14, a student at St. Andrew Primary school.
Visit ChildFund International to learn more about how you can help communities unite through the plants they grow. www.ChildFund.org.
