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Crowdfund UC Davis thanks all of the donors who gave to this important project in February. This campaign has closed, but we are grateful for your support!
Community Garden: Davis students engaged in agriculture education to feed families of children with special needs in Nicaragua.
La Calle Real de Tolapa is a small town of 1,000 people, in Nicaragua - the second poorest country in the Americas. 50% of households live in extreme poverty (less than $2 a day). There are no established businesses in the area. Families grow pigs and some work with clay pottery. Clay vases take about 3-4 days to be made. Yet, pottery stores owners from bigger cities pay about $3 dollars per vase set.
To supplement their income, people work as day laborers, or seasonally migrate to work on sugar and coffee plantations in other regions.
Most families do not have running water, refrigeration, washing machines, dryers, or stoves. Most cooking is done inside or outside over an open fire.
For some unknown reason, many families in the community have children with special needs. The local school does not accept these children, so parents cannot work away from home because they need to care for their children.
The area is a food desert. To buy produce, people need to get to the main highway to ride a bus for 2 hours to Leon (a bigger city). Fresh fruits and vegetables are expensive. As a result, many people are malnourished and have chronic diseases, such as diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease.
UC Davis students, through the Global Learning Hub – Global Affairs, are partnering with the Worldwide Child Relief Foundation (WCRF), a California-based small non-governmental organization on a sustainable solution to address food insecurity, malnutrition, and poverty in La Calle Real: a Community Garden.
Recently, La Calle Real received a donation of 8 laptops and internet was set up in the Community Center. Through this project, UC Davis students will connect virtually with community leaders to host workshops on soil testing, preparation, and planting techniques, so that families can work on a Community Garden together. Please support student engagement through the Global Learning Development Projects. Our current top priority is our Community Garden that will feed families in Nicaragua.
Project Goals:
$100 will help us provide educational materials related to nutrition and healthy eating for a year.
$500 will allow us to create 2 8x8ft garden beds that are usable for 10 years.
$1,000 will allow us to obtain essential garden tools (brush cutters, saws, shovels, etc.) over a period of 5 years.
$2,000 will allow us to supply the garden with rich soil and compost usable for 4 years.
$5,000 will allow us to provide to 50 families in need fresh and nutritious produce monthly, for a year.
$10,000 will fund a farm-to-fork learning program and allow us to install 3 stands to sell fresh produce in neighboring towns.
