We have been very, very fortunate here in ARC Rwanda to connect with a small but vibrant NGO called Gardens for Health International.
GHI works with people living with HIV/AIDS here in Rwanda, helping them learn about nutrition and how to grow the vegetables that they need in order to improve their health. You can learn more about GHI on their website, www.gardensforhealth.org.
In the refugee camps, GHI's wonderful trainers are helping some of our Income Generation Program groups to develop demonstration gardens to show other refugees how to grow fresh vegetables in very small spaces, either for home consumption or for sale at the market.
Members of our Nyabiheke Camp group pictured here completed their Phase I training earlier this month, and starting this week they will be planting gardens using the bio-intensive agriculture techniques that they studied in the training.
The trainers told us that this is the most engaged and enthusiastic group that they have ever trained, and I'm not surprised. If you ask the refugees what they did in Congo before fleeing their homes, about 90 percent of them will tell you that it was something related to agriculture. Through this training they are learning more about an activity that they already understand, and they appreciate the value of good agricultural practice.
The garden plots that are available in and around the camp are tiny compared to the vastness of the Congo, but the seeds of knowledge planted here can flourish anywhere.
