Nicaragua
Food security
Providing food security to families in Nicaragua through home gardens
Education & Training
The Need
In Latin America’s “dry corridor,” the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated an already severe food insecurity crisis. In Nicaragua, 17 per cent of the population was already living with food insecurity before COVID-19 hit—now, income loss due to the pandemic has pushed nearly 200,000 households into poverty. With limited job opportunities, thousands of low-income caregivers have no choice but to migrate to neighbouring Costa Rica in search of jobs.
Compassion’s church partners in the Palaguina and Yalaguina communities of Somoto, Nicaragua, were concerned about the food security of the children they serve. Many caregivers in these communities have lost their jobs and, without a steady income, have been unable to provide their families with regular, nutritious meals. Without food security, these children face malnutrition, which can have a profound impact on their holistic development. Our church partners have been addressing the needs of the families they serve by providing emergency food and hygiene kits but knew that a long-term solution was needed to provide sustainable food security for children and their families.
Across Nicaragua, home garden initiatives have already proven to be successful in providing families with food security and additional income by selling excess crops. By helping 70 families in Palaguina and Yalaguina start their own home gardens, our church partners hoped to permanently address food insecurity and give children hope for the future.
Our Response
Thanks to your generous support, 70 families from two Compassion centres in Palaguina and Yalaguina, Nicaragua, have started home garden initiatives and have been able to provide nutritious food for their children. The intervention officially launched in February 2022, starting with implementation meetings where church partners, Centre directors, the local partnership facilitator and a Complementary Interventions Specialist met via Zoom to discuss project details such as budget, schedule and intervention objectives. In March, each church met with their participating caregivers to provide more information about the intervention and to get caregivers to sign commitment letters.
Each church then began its search for a specialist in agronomy to help provide training for participants. The search took longer than anticipated, but by July 2022, both churches had hired an agronomist and training began. Unfortunately, the church where the NI0355 centre is located was unable to obtain its certificate of government compliance. Due to this major challenge, funds were withheld and intervention activities were halted. The participants at this centre were unable to complete the rest of their training; however, they were still able to start their home gardens and receive regular follow-ups and monitoring from the hired agronomist.
Caregivers at NI0352 participated in training sessions, and soil and pest testing were completed. Caregivers also completed income generation training and attended nutrition workshops—the church held multiple training sessions to ensure every caregiver could attend. Specialists hired by both churches made weekly visits to the family gardens. During the visits, the specialists monitored how well the plants were growing and provided solutions for pest and crop growth problems. The specialists provided monthly reports to the church.
Even though the intervention at NI0355 faced a major obstacle, caregivers still worked on their gardens with the support of the hired specialists and completed one crop cycle. At NI0352, caregivers completed four crop cycles. The caregivers were able to use what they grew to provide nutritious meals for their families and sold a small portion of excess crops to generate income.
Activities
Crops: Caregivers learned vital gardening skills that allowed them to plant and maintain a variety of crops like tomatoes, sweet peppers, beetroot and cucumbers.
Sharing food: Participating families brought part of their harvests to the Compassion centre, so staff could prepare nutritious snacks made from locally grown food for children on program days.
Support: Hired specialists provided support for caregivers by visiting their gardens, monitoring crop growth and giving families solutions to any challenges they faced.
Family gardening: Children helped caregivers in their gardens by watering plants, taking care of the gardens, weeding and cleaning debris.
Your Gift Provides...
Your support provided sustainable home gardens for 70 families facing food insecurity:
• Tools and supplies
o Fertilizer, compost and seeds to grow squash, cucumber, chiltoma, tomato, beet, radish, onion and pepper
o Shovels, wooden boards, watering cans, spray pumps, wire
• Technical assistance
o Training with an agronomist and follow-up visits for 6 months: site selection; design and planning; seedling; composting; transplanting and maintenance; soil preparation; pests; insecticides and natural fungicides; and knowledge about production, harvest and seed conservation
o Workshops with a nutrition specialist
o Training with an income-generation specialist
o Materials and snacks for training sessions
• Monitoring and evaluation
• Food and transportation
• Follow-up visits (transportation and meals)
ReportA message from those your gift helped
Before the garden intervention, there was no variety of food in my home. I was not aware of everything that can be done with vegetables, such as making natural refreshments with beetroots, nor did I know that it was important to include all these vegetables in my daily diet.
Now that this intervention is completed, it has allowed me to have more food available. It feels good to know that we are eating something that we have planted with our own hands and that we are contributing to the health of our family.
This change means a lot. Thanks to this project, my family was able to be more united by working as a team and learning how to coordinate together. We learned to take care of the garden and that, above all, from small things that we plant in our patio, it can be a source of income for our home.
From this intervention, I have learned how to save money, take advantage of time and ensure that the vegetables we grow are fresh and free of contaminants.
I want to say thank you to all the people who contributed their grain of sand to carry out this support for our families. We are thankful for the dedication that was given to us in each training session.
Thank you again, and may God bless you greatly.
ReportThank you for your generosity
Our church partners in Palaguina and Yalaguina have both joyfully reported that all 70 participating caregivers have been able to grow a variety of nutritious foods and sell excess crops to generate an income. Thanks to your generosity, children and youth from 70 families now have a reliable source of nutritious, home-grown food. Caregivers have received the training and support needed to start their gardens and help them thrive. Our church partners report that all 70 families have sold some of their crops to others in the marketplace or to neighbours, blessing entire communities with access to affordable, nutritious food.
Your support is already changing lives in Palaguina and Yalaguina. One mother at NI0352 said: “I feel so happy and glad to have received this help. With this project, I will be able to give my son a better future because my son will be able to generate income and my son will have a better diet.” Thanks to your generosity, caregivers no longer need to worry about finding food to feed their children. Children will be able to attend school and centre programs and play with their peers on a full stomach, ensuring they have the energy needed to grow and develop.
Empowering caregivers with knowledge and vital skills in keeping home gardens is a vital step to breaking generational cycles of poverty. Your gift is not only helping families now but will continue to help families and entire communities for generations to come. Real and lasting change will happen as caregivers pass on their knowledge to their children and neighbours and provide a source of nutritious food for those in their communities. Thank you for providing food security to children in Nicaragua and giving them hope for the future!
ReportA message from a centre director
This intervention has already improved the quality of life of the participants, since there has been a change in the nutrition of the families. Producing a wide variety of vegetables that caregivers harvested with their own hands not only allowed them to learn about the production process—from the preparation of the land to when the fruit is ready to be extracted—but they also learned about nutritional values and how these foods are an important part of a balanced diet.
This intervention has been key in community management by allowing 35 households to grow vegetables. It has allowed families to sell crops, thus improving their socio-economic level and reducing their dependency on money to buy food products. It has also allowed them to generate income and to work as a team as they carry out the harvest.
As a centre and as a church, this intervention allowed us to grow regarding our leadership, from the selection of the caregivers until the moment of its completion. It was a challenge, because at first, we didn’t know each of the caregivers very well. However, during the intervention, we realized the importance of knowing them. For example, we got to know which families were more willing to work, which taught us as a church to improve not only our selection of participants but also to improve our relationship with each beneficiary.
We are so grateful that you have made it possible for our community to eat nutritiously and I’m not just talking about healthy food, but the empowerment has been created from knowledge, allowing them to grow mentally and economically. We hope that everything achieved is motivation for you to continue sowing into the work of the Lord and continue growing from the hand of God.