In rural Nepal, remote villages are losing ancestral agricultural methods, including the cultivation of native seeds. As a result, they are facing greater food insecurity and lower overall well-being in the community.
Our Kitchen Garden program in Nepal is teaching villagers to grow organic food using traditional techniques and seeds specific to their region. Through a series of training sessions, participants learn invaluable traditional skills such as how to select and preserve the best seeds, and ancient composting and non-chemical fertilization techniques to enhance self-reliance and sustainability.
After learning gardening methods, participants plant a small patch of land. Women take the lead in managing and safeguarding these green spaces, and collaborate to provide sustenance for their children. When they have mastered these techniques and can grow enough to feed themselves and their families, they can start increasing their cultivation and eventually sell their organic products to earn extra income.
Dhan Kumari was one of the participants in our training program.
“My house is small,” she says, “but my family is big. I have a mother-in-law, a husband, four sons, and a daughter. I work hard to ensure everyone is well fed.”
Dhan Kumari says the training opened her eyes to the importance of growing a variety of vegetables using traditional methods. “I learned so many new things. They are actually very simple and practical things we can do in our home gardens.”
There is variety in the food Dhan Kumari’s family eats now. They are able to consume more vegetables, making their diets more nutritious.
“In the future,” Dhan Kumari says,“I want to make more land available for locally grown vegetables, so my family can eat all home-grown food. I also want to help other villagers start and enjoy more home-grown vegetables. Already, villagers are viewing my progress with envy.”
Our Kitchen Garden initiative is preventing the loss of traditional wisdom and improving the well-being of villagers. We are elevating food security by helping people grow a variety of vegetables in nutrient-rich soil, reintroducing the cultivation of traditional vegetables, and increasing access to more nutritious food.
May 6 2022
We believe that education is a tool for development, which should also help everyone to cultivate their inner qualities. Indeed, Early Childhood Development (ECD) is a major axis of intervention for K...
April 28 2022
This year, all the donations collected by Action For Karuna finance our food security program in India which supports more than 53,000 families: organic vegetable gardens, fruit trees, drip irrigati...
April 19 2022
"When altruists join forces, they can generate a tremendous power for good. (...) Everyone can mobilize in his or her own way and cultivate an altruistic state of mind to become a link in the immense ...
March 31 2022
Since June 2021, Karuna-Shechen has been supporting Calcutta Rescue in its intervention in the slums of Nonadanga and Canal West, in Calcutta, India. This sister association was created by Dr. Jack P...
March 14 2022
"In this current era, we face many challenges. One of our main problems is to reconcile the demands of the economy, the pursuit of happiness and respect for the environment. These imperatives corresp...
