The ability to grow vegetables at high altitude with difficult conditions related to extreme fluctuations from the hot sun and cold nights has been showing great success by the use of the green houses built in the last 3 years. Using high quality UV protected plastic, if cared for, the greenhouse can last for more than 10 years. Each greenhouse can provide sufficient produce for 10 people. Families living in the area of influence of the Yurac Yacu Community Center were encouraged to apply and those who were chosen were based on criteria that considered family need and then participation in the required workshop and cooking classes. The greenhouse program consists of various components.
All the families in three communities (Cachipampa, Rivas and Yarush) were invited to apply for a family greenhouse. To receive a greenhouse each applicant was required to attend four nutrition and vegetable cooking classes and three organic fertilizer and pest control workshops, each about 3 hours in length. Applicants who attended all the workshops were awarded a greenhouse together with the organic fertilizer and pest control mixes, vegetable seeds and gardening tools. The project ran for 4 consecutive years and a total of 55 family greenhouses were constructed with funding provided by the Sombrilla International Development Society of Edmonton, Canada.
Each family greenhouse is 12m x 5m and contains 3 garden beds totaling 36m2 of growing space. Tomatoes, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflowers, swiss chard, spinach, lettuces, cucumbers, carrots, leeks, green peppers, basil and other herbs, can be grown in the greenhouses, which dramatically expands each family’s vegetable consumption.
Following construction of the greenhouse each family received follow-up assistance on a monthly basis for a period of 2 years.
Make A Donation To The Food Security Project
Following the Paypal button below you can make a donation. (Paypal accepts bank transfers, credit cards and more, all you need is a Paypal account).
Donating helps us enormously! If you are looking to make a donation in a personalised way or on a recurring basis, don't hesitate to use the contact form below. We'll be very happy to help. If making a simple donation, all you have to do with write in the donation now how you'd like us to use your donation.
Your donation can be used in the following ways. Please leave it in the payment note with your donation telling us how you'd like to see it used and how you'd like us to keep you informed.
If you leave no note, we'll use your donation the best way we see fit to help our community here in Huaraz, Peru.
Donation Purposes:
o By yearly cooking classes using greenhouse produce. Includes trainer and product $30.00 per person (up to 30 people)
o New greenhouses (minimum 3 contact us directly for costs)
o Development of local community greenhouse food market (contact us directly for costs)
o Payment of support person who visits the greenhouse 2 – 3 times a year to evaluate progress, help to problem solve $400.00 a year
o Yearly workshops on making organic pest controls and fertilizers. Covers trainer and materials $30.00 per person (up to 40 people)