Kilimanjaro, TZ – Vegetable profits keep grandchild in school – 30 Nov 2014

The EOR family started their organic vegetable garden on May 13, 2014. The family – two grandparents looking after three grandchildren – has worked hard to maintain a productive garden and has been rewarded for their effort.

The grandparents asked to start a garden because they wanted to ensure their grandchildren received proper nutrition. However, in August one of the grandchildren broke his leg. To get to school the children walk about a mile down very steep terrain. In the rainy season, the roads and paths are deep mud. This would have been an incredibly difficult journey to make with crutches, and the grandchild would undoubtedly have missed many days of school when he couldn’t make the trip. The grandparents did not want their grandson falling behind his classmates, so they committed to looking after their garden as a way to raise transport money for their grandson.

The grandson has not missed a day of school yet because of transportation challenges. Every day that it rained the family was able to pay a local motorbike driver 1,000 TZS (US $0.63) each way to take the student to school. Since August, the family has paid 37,000 TZS (US $23.13) to the local drivers.

In addition to selling vegetables, the family has also eaten around 1,500 TZS ($0.94) of vegetables per week.

They are looking forward to no longer having to pay transportation expenses, because this will enable them to focus on other goals. The family is also interested in improving their chicken coop and continuing the children’s education.