Vegetable Gardens in Kibara

From what we can see in the households and the market, the common diet in the villages in Rwanda consists of a lot of potatoes, cassava, plantain, corn, sorghum, bean, …  Inspired by what we have seen elsewhere, one of our teams is working with our partner, AEE, to help the villagers in Kibara plant small vegetable gardens.  

The villagers certainly know a lot more about farming than our students, and even their teachers. AEE, in fact, has already started some experimental vegetable farming projects in the village.  

What we can do, is to work with AEE to give them a little nudge and help with green vegetables which they may not be familiar with.  

Hence we work with AEE to break the ground at appropriate sites, 

give away tools, 

seeds, manure, …  

The tools, in particular, seem well received. However, changing habits and culture is very hard.  Let us see whether the vegetable garden movement takes hold.  

This vegetable garden project is actually only a part of a larger project on nutrition.  The team has conducted surveys of the villagers and found that the children are lagging in many dimensions of development, such as weight, height, ...  Hence sub-projects such as talks on nutrition, vegetable gardens, cooking classes, etc., to help to improve nutrition, particularly with the children.