Development in Gardening: Reap Life!

As the global population rises and arable land disappears, it becomes increasingly vital that Africa boosts its food production. Many solutions call for a “Green Revolution” in Africa, similar to the agricultural transformation of the 1960s and 1970s that took hold in Asia and Latin America. A similar movement in Africa would require a serious overhaul in development policy, resource management and infrastructure. It might also employ unsustainable farming practices, such as crop monocultures and the use of petroleum-based fertilizers and genetically modified seeds. There is another school of thought that sees Africa’s potential in a different light: teaching sustainable practices to small-scale farmers. This is the approach of Development in Gardening, also know by its acronym, DIG.

Development in Gardening was founded in 2006 by two former Peace Corps volunteers to improve the lives of those affected by HIV/AIDS. DIG provides the supplies and technical know-how to create customized urban micro-gardens at HIV clinics, hospitals, orphanages, and patients’ homes. They work primarily in Africa, but they also have two project sites in Latin America. They contribute to five of the eight United Nations Millennium Development Goals and seek to address the connections between HIV/AIDS, poverty, hunger and malnutrition. It is essential that HIV/AIDS patients receive proper nutrition as antiretroviral therapy is much less effective for those who are malnourished.

DIG collaborates with organizations already working in the community, which reduces start-up time and duplicative work. The organization emphasizes sustainability by training people to train each other, incorporating found materials and objects into their garden designs, water conservation and creating seed banks. The hope is that those who learn gardening techniques from the organization will bring those skills back to their neighborhoods and create their own plots and communal gardens with what they have available to them.

Perhaps the greatest gift of DIG is not what they teach but the social and psychological benefits experienced by the patients. The gardens provide a calm, meditative and positive environment; they strengthen community ties and reduce the social isolation that many HIV/AIDS patients experience. Participants have the opportunity to learn a skill-set, pass along their knowledge and improve their overall self-worth. Most of their participants are women with few life skills and their work with DIG helps them to become self-sufficient and sustaining. DIG empowers HIV/AIDS patients in the poorest regions of the world to improve their lives and the lives of those around them. This is best summed up by one of their participants: “I don’t want people to give us things – that’s not what it’s about. We want to do things for ourselves.”


Sarah Koch, co-founder of Development In Gardening, talks about the organization’s work in Africa and the importance of women:



Sarah Koch, 2008 YouthActionNet Fellow, talks about DIG
Laura Bush praising DIG
Segment about DIG on WBEZ 91.5

See how DIG has changed the lives of these women:
Florence's Story
Robina's Story
Learn more about the nutritional requirements of those living with HIV/AIDS

Photos courtesy of Development In Gardening

Sustainability: A Woman's Work

Women are recognized as the focal point of the family and economic unit, particularly in the developing world. As such, their unrestricted participation is crucial to a sustainable future. MADRE is an international organization that recognizes the role that women must be allowed to play in the reduction of world-wide poverty through environmentally conscientious means. By collaborating with regional groups, MADRE works for the empowerment of women and girls, freeing them to be productive members of their communities through responsible practices in agriculture and commerce.

Created in 1983 by a group of US women hailing from diverse professional backgrounds, MADRE started as a solidarity organization exposing the effects of US foreign policy upon people abroad. It has since evolved into an international establishment that works for women’s rights to achieve economic, health and educational equality.

MADRE operates by partnering with local, women-run organizations. Presently, these sister organizations are located in countries throughout Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East. By working closely in such partnerships, MADRE ensures that its efforts are disseminated by -- and for -- those who are the most knowledgeable of the regions’ needs. Meanwhile, the local interest groups benefit from the resources and expertise of a global non-profit association.

MADRE’s philosophy coincides with that of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, that the role of local women, and their empowerment, is integral to the attainment of social and economic justice. Both within the household and in the immediate community, women are the primary providers of housing, healthcare, childcare, nutrition, education and emotional well-being.

The following example offers illustration in the way that MADRE works with local women to develop sustainable practices at the regional level:

Deforestation of the Panamanian jungles due to industrialized agriculture and mining, plays a direct role in climate change. Additionally, destruction of the rainforest threatens many indigenous populations that rely upon the habitat for their existence. These people, in turn, sustain the environment through traditional practices and knowledge. MADRE helps to preserve and protect the indigenous lifestyle by conducting workshops for women of the community, disseminating traditional knowledge and local practices as an option to environmental exploitation. Furthermore, MADRE educates these women about their legal and human rights entitling them to live and farm on their land.

Through its Panama project, and many others throughout the developing world,MADRE devotes crucial resources and knowledge to native women to protect their communities’ way of life for subsequent generations.

Photo courtesy MADRE.org