Battambang, KH – Family perseveres despite poor soil – 4 Oct 2013

When deciding on a family to help build a garden, it is important to look at the family’s physical environment; water access, soil quality, sunshine, etc., but more importantly one must look at the family’s interest level and commitment to trying to improve their families lives!

A good example is the MY family in Cambodia.  Back at the beginning of September, we were looking to implement three family gardens in three weeks.  Rey Diez was in charge of finding the families ahead of my and Chris Jenkins arrival to Cambodia.  Since it was the beginning of the Food Always In The Home (FAITH) organic vegetable garden program in Cambodia, it was going to be vital to choose families that were going to be successful with their gardens.

The MY family is a very poor family with little land available for a garden and only one low income coming from the father going fishing during the dry season.  When Rey went to visit their land he decided that the soil was too clayey and full of stones, so that it would be very hard to build a successful garden.  He told the family that it would be very difficult to have a productive garden in that location.  Instead of taking Rey’s news and becoming disenchanted with the project, the family maintained their level of interest and would visit Rey once or twice a week to request for help with the garden.  Seeing that the interest level and dedication was there, Rey decided to choose the MY family for one of the gardens to be implemented, labeling it the “helicopter,” or a challenging garden to implement.  We set to work on a hot morning, plowing the land.  It turns out that it was an old brick making site, so the ground with extremely hard and full of stones!  The entire MY family showed up to work including the 7 and 10 year old children and the father’s brother from the neighboring village.  After 5 days of plowing and pulverizing the soil in sweltering heat; the beds for the garden were formed, compost and rice hull charcoal were added, and the garden planted.  It was amazing to see how enthusiastic the children were about helping their parents, getting involved with every step of the vegetable garden making.

Almost immediately, the plants started to grow and after just one week the garden was already taking shape.  After six weeks the garden was in full bloom and the MY family was already harvesting early maturing vegetables from it every week!

With some of the money that the MY family earned from the garden, they were able to take out a loan for a group of piglets, which they fattened up and sold to pay off the loan and invest in a group of ducklings.

The family’s water source can run dry during the dry season, so they are dependent on the  livestock income during that season.