One of the main goals of Aldea Maya is to help make the village of Chuk Muk more self sufficient. If families can produce nutritious food at home, they will not only eat better but not have to use their meager salaries to buy food.
For 4 years, Aldea Maya helped families start vegetable gardens. This has not been an easy process as Chuk Muk has some of the worst soil conditions in Guatemala. The problem is exacerbated by it’s location on a bluff that is beaten by the sun all day and whipped by strong winds.
The first step in starting a garden was removing the large rocks and boulders. This work requires tools like picks and shovels. These are items that families do not own and cannot afford to buy. In addition many families are make up of single moms or grand parents that are unable to do this back breaking work.
The next problem is the soil, which is basically sand and has little organic matter. In first world countries you would just go to the local garden store and pick up bags of soil. It is not so easy in Guatemala.
We needed to rent a truck and drive to different locations to pick up cow and chicken manure, coffee pulp, wood shavings and organic compost from the municipality. We needed to purchase these items and then shovel them into 100# bags which we also purchased. When you realize that families do not have the money to buy food this expense is unattainable.
These gardens required fences to keep animals etc. out of the garden. Wooden posts were harvested from the mountainside. Aldea Maya needed to supply the wire, wire cutting tools, shovels, hammers and nails need to construct the fence.
Once the garden was started we needed to supply seeds as well as hoses. Often we have to repair the taps in the houses.
We has some successes with our garden program but unfortunately we had just as many failures.
One of our successes is a mom that started her own business selling plants to Aldea Maya. She noticed that we bought plants for our school papaya and citrus projects. She started composting and now supplies our program.
Another success story is our garden employee, Pedro. He had the best garden and attitude. Therefore, when we were looking to hire someone he was our first choice. We have had some successes with our garden program but unfortunately we have had just as many failures.
We needed to improve our program to dramatically increase the success rate. We heard about an organization called IMAP that specialized in permaculture.
We started by sending our employees and teachers from the elementary and middle school to IMAP’s courses on permaculture techniques, seed collection and cooking with native foods.
Check out their website https://imapermaculture.wordpress.com/
In 2015, we started a partnership with IMAP. IMAP runs amazing courses that teach leadership skills coupled with permaculture knowledge. Their mission is the empowerment of communities for self-sustainability through permaculture education, Mayan ancestral knowledge and conservation of native seeds.
They partner with the Guatemalan government and Pura Vida to help in the development of school gardens. IMAP runs these great courses teaching Permaculture techniques. When the courses finish the participants have a wealth of knowledge but have not had the opportunity to implement their new skills.
IMAP students visit Chuk Muk and work with families to design a garden. Then the students and the family start a new vegetable garden. Aldea Maya partners with IMAP to supply the materials required as well as transportation.
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