Arequipa Gardens

While we were in Arequipa for the vision project, we also visited a family food production project. It was different than the Nauta garden project in many respects, which is what one would expect in a garden project that is designed to help meet the needs of people in a specific area. Rather than a one size fits all approach, the project is developed and scaled based upon local needs and local resources.



We visited some of the participating families in one Ward of the participating stake. The Barrio Union of the Umacolla Stake was the one selected to visit. The stake president, Pres. Pacheco, picked us up at our hotel after we ate breakfast and then we went to the ward meetinghouse where we met two sisters there who are coordinating the work within their ward.

It has been about five or six weeks since the first seeds were sown. It was fun to see how excited the people are to see their gardens begin to grow. In preparation for the gardens, the coordinators (the two sisters) taught a series of twelve nutrition classes to help the participating families know better how to use what they grow to improve the nutrition of their families.

We saw everything from traditional gardens to rooftop gardens, to gardens on the 4th floor apartment balcony, to 2-liter pop bottle gardens attached to the brick wall. It was instructive to see how the gardens were adapted to the participant's unique needs and circumstances to try to best meet their needs as well as they can given their space availability.

Many of the gardens were enclosed behind fencing to keep cats and other small animals out.

Once the members get their gardens well under way, they plan to begin the small animal production portion of the project that will help provide a source of protein for the families who are participating. The purchasing needed for that will be coordinated by us and the Purchasing Department at the Area Office where we are based.

We found out that the leaves of the plant in the last photo are used to wrap tamales. Perhaps some of the tamales we thought were wrapped in banana leaves were really wrapped in these.

Click here to see a video of our Arequipa Garden project visit   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0US6mTgMCw&feature=youtu.be