Projects for Fiscal Year 2017–18—Part 5 (conclusion)

By BGR Staff

23. U.S.: Urban Farming in Detroit

Nearly 40% of Detroit residents live below the poverty line and 21% of metro Detroiters are food insecure. Keep Growing Detroit (KGD) was established to promote a food sovereign city where the majority of fruits and vegetables Detroiters consume are grown by residents within the city’s limits. The aim is not only to provide residents with seeds to increase food security but to achieve “food sovereignty,” where residents are the leaders and beneficiaries of a transformed food system, able to make decisions about the health, wealth, and future of their families and community.

The grant from BGR will support KGD’s ongoing programs. These include: (1) The Garden Resource Program, which helps increase access to healthy food by providing technical and resource support to 1,500 urban gardens and farms in Detroit, including 400 new gardens in 2017. Together these gardens will produce over 180 tons of fresh, nutritious, locally grown produce for predominately low-income families and engage more than 16,000 residents. (2) Twenty-two events including 16 educational workshops and 6 garden workdays reaching 440 residents. At these events a diverse pool of community leaders and instructors, many Garden Resource growers, will provide hands-on instruction on basic gardening, water conservation, and food preservation techniques to build the skills and confidence of urban farmers. Annually renewable project

24. Vietnam: Enhanced Homestead Food Production

This is the second year of a three-year partnership between BGR and Helen Keller International that addresses household food security for residents of Muong Lang Commune, in Son La Province, a remote mountainous region in the northwest of Vietnam. There is high malnutrition in this region, which is a contributing factor to 50% of infant and childhood deaths. The Enhanced Homestead Food Production (EHFP) program trains multi-generation families to increase year-round food production with more diversified crops to improve nutrition and thereby to improve health. In all over 100 families in 10 villages will benefit from the program (approximately 550 individuals). The grant from BGR sponsors a third of the program.

In year two, an additional ten communities will benefit from the establishment of Village Model Farms (VMF)—a community based resource for training and technical support for the roughly ten families that typically make up each small village. Within each village a community husband and wife are identified and trained as the VMF demonstration farmers. These VMFs will provide agriculture resources for the community households (i.e. seeds),  educate families on nutrient rich crops, and  provide hands on training including bio-composting, crop diversification,  sanitation and hygiene, and even marketing strategies for income generation from sale of excess food production. The family model empowers women to actively contribute to the improved health of their village.

25. Vietnam: System of Rice Intensification in Dai Tu District

This project is conducted in partnership with the International Cooperation Center of Thai Nguyen University. The project aims to introduce the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) to farmers in Dai Tu district, a mountainous region located in the northwest of Thai Nguyen Province. Rice farmers from two communes and agriculture extension staffs of Dai Tu district will be trained on SRI. Most of the farmers are women. The training will help them to reduce their work burden in rice production and improve rice productivity. After training, the trainees will return to their communes to teach other farmers how to apply SRI on their rice fields. They will be the key farmers to expand the SRI model in their villages and in 31 communes and towns in the future. 160 rice farmers will be the direct beneficiaries of the project, and about 1,000 other farmer households will be indirect beneficiaries.

Project activities include meeting with various district and commune leaders and with state agricultural experts for the introduction of SRI, providing SRI training for farmers in two pilot communes, conducting field trips for participants to get direct hands-on experience in SRI techniques, establishing SRI production in the rice fields of the pilot communes with further training. The program will provide ongoing support for these pilot fields, with final workshops held to share knowledge and experience more widely with farmers throughout the district. Annually renewable project

26. Vietnam: Meals for Hospital Patients at Tam Binh Hospital

In Vietnam, the price of a hospital stay does not include food. Already challenged by the hospital expenses, most patients and their families are hard pressed to buy food. In partnership with the Tam Binh chapter of the Vietnam Red Cross Society, since 2009 BGR has been providing thousands of free meals to patients at the Tam Binh hospital. With the grant from BGR and the support from the Tam Binh local chapter of the Red Cross, 500 vegetarian meals are served daily to hospital patients. A total of 3500 meals will be served per week, or 182,000 meals per year for hospital patients. BGR funds will be divided among fifteen Red Cross teams.  Each team will be able to provide meals for four weeks to hospital patients.  Thus, fifteen teams would provide hospital meals for an entire year.  This project supports the nutritional needs of some of the most vulnerable people—those who are poor and sick. Annually renewable project

27. Vietnam: Scholarships for Poor Children in Tam Binh and Cam Duong Districts

Each year BGR sponsors scholarships to students in schools in both the Tam Binh and Cam Duong districts of Vietnam. The scholarships are given by the Vietnam Red Cross Society. With BGR funding, the Red Cross will be able to provide scholarships to 305 students from the Tam Binh district at the levels of primary, middle, and high school, and to 400 students from the Cam Duong district at the levels of primary and middle school. BGR funds will be used to provide annual enrollment fees, school uniforms, books, and educational materials for the 2017–1018 school year. These are children from the poorest families who achieve good grades and display good conduct. Without this aid, these students would not have the means to continue their studies. The scholarship also provides each student with basic health care during the school year. Annually renewable project

28. Haiti: Supporting the Nutrition of Poor Children in Jacmel

The mission of the Joan Rose Foundation—a U.S.-based nonprofit—is to give impoverished children and their families in Jacmel, Haiti, the opportunity to succeed in life. For the past six years the Foundation has been providing education, food, medicine, clothing, and legal documentation with the ultimate goal of breaking the cycle of poverty for poor children and their families. The food program has always been one of JRF’s biggest expenses. Feeding the children allows them to focus in school and tutoring sessions, improves their overall nutrition and wellbeing, and takes a financial burden and stress off their parents. The BGR grant will allow the Foundation to continue providing the children with two nutritious meals, breakfast and lunch, Monday through Friday. Part of the BGR grant will be used to obtain the help of SUCO, a Canadian NGO based in Jacmel that specializes in agriculture production, nutritional education. and diet. This portion of the grant will be used to bring SUCO into the community to conduct workshops with the children and community members. The grant will cover this training, workbooks, additional farming tools, and seeds.

— SERIES ON 2017-18 PROJECTS CONCLUDED —