Kijani Grows and El Infinito works with local schools in and around the Xela area to educate them about environmental issues and use alternative farming techniques to demonstrate how to live more sustainably and improve nutrition in their communities.
Here’s a brief overview of the food and agriculture situation in Guatemala:
- 54% of Guatemalan children are chronically malnourished – 3rd highest rate in the world
- Approximately 50% of Guatemala’s 14 million residents live on less than $2 per day
- 80% of Guatemala’s Mayan population are chronically malnourished
- Lack of agricultural infrastructure, poor land management, corruption, high unemployment, higher world prices of food have all contributed to the malnutrition in the country.
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- Baby lettuce and creating new growbed
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- Using old plastic bottles as mini greenhouses to protect seedlings
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- Volunteers on the couch made of grass we dug up for more garden space!
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- Using homemade compost fertilizer to fortify the soil
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- Lacquer to protect the growbed from humidity and water
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- Piecing together the styrofoam that we’ll grow the veggies in
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- Building the hydroponic component of the Smart Aquaponics garden
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- Drilling the hole for the grow bed drainage
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- Laying out the different parts – bucket filters, grow bed, fish tank.
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- Drainage from grow bed to fish tank, returning clean water to the fish!
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- Mechanical bucket filter #1
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- Filter #1 connects to filter #2 using gravity
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- Water draining from the second filter into the grow bed
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- True bootstrap style – using scotch brite as filter material
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- Our lovely Australian intern Amy putting our logos on.
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- Completed garden in Quetzaltenango
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