Afghanistan

Children's Garden
Located in Northern Afghanistan, Children's Garden is a nutritional, educational, agricultural, and social program funded by Enduring Harvest, implemented by Global Roots in Baharak district Badakhshan Afghanistan.
The Children’s Garden Project (CGP) focuses on providing food for orphaned children, children’s education, and orphan empowerment. This project is geared toward helping malnourished children through agricultural education, crop production, and structured schooling. Critical farming skills are taught, such as vegetable production, aviculture, and beekeeping. The CGP is helping these children by providing vegetables and dry foods (rice, oil and flour) to otherwise food-deprived children while improving their health through proper nutritional education. Additionally, the program sponsors the children’s primary educational needs by distributing school uniforms and teaching the children the English language, agricultural issues, and mathematics.
 
From 2019- 2022, the public schools were closed in Badakhshan due to covid-19, war, and the local authorities order for school closure.
Project Objectives:
  • Reducing poverty
  • Reducing widespread hunger
  • Educating Children
  • Creating job opportunities for jobless men and women
  • Reducing domestic violence
  • Reduction of arranged and early marriage
  • Preventing the physical work of orphaned and destitute girls and boys
Gardening and Agriculture:
  • Land break up, land plowing and land preparation have been done for cultivation.
  • Procurement of gardening tools.
  • Procurement of vegetables seeds, chemical fertilizers for Children Garden.
  • The nurseries of onion, tomato planted under mulch system.
  • The nurseries of onion, tomato planted under mulch system.
  • Cucumber, Melon planted under mulch system and Zucchini, potato, beans, tomato and onion planted in Children Garden.
  • The children and students visit their garden every Saturday, and also harvest and pluck the garden products every week. The distance between the Children's Garden and their school building is 5.75 km, we are using a bus to transport the students to and from the school building and children's garden once a week.
  • Planting of watermelon and planting of second part of cucumber and zucchini will be done at the beginning of July-2022.
  • Professional agriculturist are training the children on how to plant and grow different types of vegetables by giving them hands on training in the garden and vegetable farm.
  • The children will be equipped with knowledge of how to properly maintain a garden, grow nutrient packed fruits and vegetables, and use their crop yields as a reliable food and income source.
Results:

November 2022 Update (NEW)

The Children’s Garden distributed 8,320 kilos of vegetables valuing of roughly $4120 to 80 children so far in 2022.

Each child took home a food package worth over $37 USD containing 20kg of rice, 5 liters of oil, 7kg of yellow split peas, 2 kg of sugar, 2 kg of black tea and 10 kg of potato’s.

602 family members benefited from the program.

Each child logged a total of 84 hours in the garden and 300 hours in the classroom.

Each child received a school uniform, bag, and stationary kit.

The project paid a fulltime salary to 10 staff members and gave work to 200 others.

Extra produce was sold for a total of $300 to donate back to the Children’s Garden Project.

June 2022 Update

Approximately 1525 kg cucumber, zucchini and radish harvested and distributed to 70 children at the month of June 2022. The value of 1525 kg products are $1311.24 USD