Growing Awareness in Paraguay: School Gardens Give Children the Tools to Prosper

Abstract

Children, Youth and Environments Vol 13, No.1 (Spring 2003) ISSN 1546-2250 Growing Awareness in Paraguay: School Gardens Give Children the Tools to Prosper Darcy Varney University of Colorado Citation: Varney, Darcy. “Growing Awareness in Paraguay: School Gardens Give Children the Tools to Prosper.” Children, Youth and Environments 13(1), Spring 2003. Retrieved [date] from http://colorado.edu/journals/cye. Keywords: Paraguay; South America; gardening; rural poverty Located in the heart of South America, Paraguay is a land in transition. The country’s population, comprised of blended groups of indigenous Guarani people and descendents of Spanish settlers, is growing at a rate of 2.9 percent, and more and more young people are leaving their families’ traditional, agriculture-based subsistence existence for life in the cities. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) reports that more than half of Paraguay’s 5.5 million people live in urban areas. UNDP estimates that by the year 2015, the proportion of urban dwellers will increase to 65 percent of the population. Youth in search of an education often leave rural areas to live with friends or relatives in the cities, since staying with their families means migrating to harvest crops or find farmable land, interrupting their studies. Few who stay in rural areas have access to secondary schools or other educational resources beyond primary school. Plan International, a non-profit global alliance that seeks to improve children’s well- being and promotes children’s rights, is helping to bring educational opportunities to Paraguay’s rural children. In the summer of 2000, Plan introduced the concept of vegetable gardening at 48 rural primary schools in the southern provinces of Cordillera, Paraguarí, Caaguazú, and Guairá. The program aimed to improve children’s health through nutrition and provide them with skills they could share with their parents. The people of Paraguay have long lived on a mostly vegetarian diet of cassava (a potato-like tuber), corn and beans. Surviving on less than US$2 per day, half of 377 the population cannot afford to purchase fresh produce, which sells at a premium. To help children and community members build gardens, Plan provided seeds, garden tools, and materials to construct small fences, along with technical support to the schools. As children worked together on the gardens, they learned how to care for the plants and use environmentally friendly organic fertilizers. Students and staff at some schools formed garden committees to oversee the entire process. The children grew carrots, tomatoes, lettuce, and beets, among other vegetables. A number of parents also participated by priming the soil and building fences to enclose the gardens. The children were eager to succeed, especially given the challenge of keeping the plants alive during cold weather. They came up with a simple solution that worked: covering the gardens with straw and newspaper to protect the plants from frost. After harvesting the vegetables, children ate them with their lunches at school and took home the leftovers to share with their families. Through this initiative, more than 2,500 children learned about the importance of nutritional foods and about gardening activities they could replicate at home. Plan International works in rural areas of 45 developing countries, including Paraguay, assisting child survival, providing clean drinking water and developing formal and informal educational programs. For more information about this or other Plan projects, contact: Childreach, 155 Plan Way, Warwick, RI 02886; 800-556-7918 ...