Kilimanjaro, TZ – Father using vegetables to boost total nutrition – 28 Feb 2015

The RMK family started their garden with Lishe Bora in September. Before starting their garden the family was supporting their five children with 20,000 TZS (US $11.76) per month. In addition to this income the family also had milk from cows, eggs from chickens, and bananas from their small farm. Now the family is very excited to have vegetables to round out the children’s diet. The father of the family says so far they can’t choose a favorite vegetable, everything from their garden is delicious!

In addition to eating vegetables every day the family has been able to sell 8,000 TZS (US $4.70) per month. They have also stopped purchasing vegetables at the market, which they used to do a couple times per month.

With improved income and savings the parents in the family are trying to improve their children’s nutrition by purchasing meats and other healthy proteins. Their ultimate goal is to improve their children’s education and they see nutrition as an important part of that. They hope that as they learn more they can continue improving their garden for increased income.

The family’s major challenge is water. They walk about 25 meters to a stream but the stream will often by blocked off by farmers doing flood irrigation upstream. Sometimes they can go over a week without being able to irrigate their garden. To solve this problem the family mulches during the dry season and is supporting other community efforts to improve water access.