A small public school in the Sierra Norte region of Puebla, Mexico, recently won a prestigious state award for its organic garden, which has produced much more than fruits and vegetables; it has also taught the community about nutrition, agricultural practices and improved entrepreneurship.
In a program supported by ChildFund, the school’s garden helps students to learn not only about nutrition and agriculture, but also their indigenous heritage. In Mexico’s northern highlands, much of the population is indigenous, and the program encourages students to talk about gardening, recipes and nutrition with their parents and grandparents in their native language, Nahuatl.
Maria Isabel, 15, has been heavily involved in the project since day one. She was chosen to represent her school in a state held ceremony, where the principal, teachers and students of the school were recognized for their innovative garden.
“With programs like the school garden, a new hope is growing in the community, because we want to learn,” she said.
The garden has medicinal plants, fruits, vegetables, trees and herbs. Maria Isabel is able to recognise each plant, explain its nutritional value, recite recipes it can be used in, and remember how much shade, water and care it needs. Maria Isabel and her classmates also learn the names of the plants in both Spanish and Nahuatl, and recall their full scientific names.
Students’ families also visit the garden and are taught alternative gardening methods, such as how to use old soccer balls, plastic soda bottles and truck tires for planting, to save space.
The program educates families on how fruit and vegetables from the garden can make healthy and nutritious substitutes to their diets, like making vegetable pancakes with bananas and carrots.
“I had never had nopal cactus leaves with steamed onions before the school garden,” says Maria Isabel. “Now they are my favourite and they are rich in Vitamin A.”
Family members can take home some of the produce and are also encouraged to diversify their own gardens from the typical focus on rice and oranges. Furthermore families are beginning to sell surplus produce in roadside stalls, which supplements their incomes and benefits their neighbours and relatives.
The school has even started baking goods with ingredients from their garden and hopes that they will continue to shape a brighter future for their small community.
I was in Conakry [the capital of Guinea] when I received the call that my mother was sick and had been taken to the hospital. Unfortunately, where she was hospitalised, none of the health workers knew that she was suffering from Ebola. I was told that she had been sick since 28 August. Just one week later, on 4 September, she died.
They wanted to carry her body to the mortuary. But we, the family members, refused and took her body to the village where we buried her in respect to our tradition.
Very often in Guinea, religion and tradition have great influence on burial ceremonies, including washing the body and taking it to a worship place for prayer before the final burial, during which the closest relatives are asked to place the body in a tomb. This is how Facinet got infected by Ebola.
I believe I was infected during the burial ceremony, as I was involved in all the activities. One Thursday evening, when I had I returned to Conakry to resume my job, I started to feel a headache and fever.
When it was getting serious, I called a doctor from Matam Community Health Centre. At the health centre, I was told to go to an Ebola treatment centre for examination. There, I was informed that I was positive for Ebola. I was completely desperate and did not know what to do. Immediately, I was placed in treatment. However, I still felt that I would come out of it.
One moment that I will never forget in my life was the moment when Dr. Mary entered the room where I was lying. I was scared when she entered. My eyes were wide open and staring at her, but she spoke to me with a smile on her face.
“Bangoura, tomorrow you are leaving this place,” she said. “You are healed.” I could not believe my ears. Though I had lost six relatives from my family of 15, I was still overjoyed because I was healed.
But things fell apart for Facinet (pictured left) when he came out of the treatment centre. Life was no longer the same for him.
All my friends refused to accept me. Even my boss refused to let me continue my job. I was obliged to return to my village, where even old friends and relatives stayed away from me.
I was alone in the house and was completely isolated from others.
Most Ebola survivors have been stigmatised when they returned to their communities. For Facinet, the end of his isolation began when ChildFund staff arrived in his village, creating greater awareness of how Ebola is spread and that its survivors are no longer contagious.
The day ChildFund and the local government federation staff members came to my village was the beginning of new hope for me. They spent time giving me courage and also sensitising my neighbours and the rest of the community to accept me, telling them that I was completely healed and that I could live among people without any risk of infection.
They continue to support me and the orphaned children in my community with clothing, food and cash transfers to enable us to begin new lives. I am grateful for their support of me and the many orphaned children in my community.
ChildFund Australia would like to thank our wonderful supporters who have generously donated to support children orphaned by Ebola through the interim care centres. ChildFund`s care centres in Liberia and Sierra Leone have now closed but ChildFund continues to support these children in the recovery process.
