Community Transformation – Page 2

Greg Bogdan’s Memorial Garden in Sapla Kenya

August 21, 2020

In the countries where we work, you’re more likely to hear about the DIG program from our graduated farmers than through fancy signs or posted advertisements. Our local reputation is critically important to the success of our work, which is designed to be approachable and community driven. Some of our most successful garden groups have joined DIG through friend recommendations, and that’s just what happened in Sapla Kenya. Lorna, the sister to one of our graduated farmers, was so interested

Community Transformation

Greg Bogdan’s Mkungu Memorial Garden, Uganda

August 18, 2020

Thank you to Greg Bogdan for encouraging DIG to grow and showing us that challenging efforts aren't to be shied away from, rather these are efforts we can work out together. Equally, thank you to the incredible community who loved and cherished Greg and who personally donated to DIG in his memory. May this garden and the gift of his presence in our lives continue to root and grow in us.

Community Transformation

Adapting for Growth

August 4, 2020

In Senegal, DIG is adapting it's program to serve students who are blind, visually impaired and hearing impaired, and the students have cultivated more than we dreamed.

Cocktails and Castoffs

MetroFresh’s 2020 DIG Garden ~ Ziguinchor, Senegal

June 30, 2020

In 2019 at a DIG Cocktails and Castoffs event, MetroFresh, a local Atlanta restaurant, encouraged their community to help sponsor a DIG garden in Senegal. They have previously sponsored a garden in Kenya and Uganda and this year they wanted to spread the seeds of transformation in Senegal. Their support has sustainably equipped 13 uniquely vulnerable families in the city of Ziguinchor, Senegal to become food secure, nutritionally rich, climate resilient, and economically secure. Here are some of the stories

Community Transformation

Augustus and Estrella Overcome Mobility Challenges to Grow

June 25, 2020

How one family turns a life changing accident into an opportunity to develop a family farm.

Community Transformation

Maureen Oboch – Orange Sweet Potato Entrepreneur

June 8, 2020

“DIG brought me up from a level no one else would have done, I leant a number of techniques that have enables me to succeed even in other projects, I have done all these because DIG opened my potential in farming, DIG connected me to Ministry of Agriculture and I got connected further to CIP. For sure my life has improved beyond what anyone expected.” – Maureen Oboch Maureen Oboch first joined DIG’s program back in 2016. She is from

Community Transformation

Saphietu – First Time Gardener

June 4, 2020

I want to introduce you to one of the amazing women in our LAUNCH Program in Senegal, Saphiatu. Saphiatu lives in Ziguinchor. She and her husband have never held a formal job. He makes money doing odd jobs primarily around electrical work when he can find it. When money really gets desperate Saphiatu mixes a homemade bleach solution to sell in the local market. They have a 15-year-old daughter and they are also shouldering the burden of caring for their

Community Transformation

Embracing Communities with Disabilities in Uganda

March 11, 2019

Levi Byamukama has a vibrant social energy. He greets everyone with a smile and moves through life with joyful curiosity. One day, after seeing a group of Batwa DIG farmers gathered in the fields, Levi moved closer to see what was happening. He ended up staying through an entire DIG training and returned the weeks following. After a while, the group elected he join them and Levi became an official DIG farmer.

Climate Resilience

DIG Batwa Farmers: Katamas and Hope

January 31, 2019

This Batwa family used to beg for dregs, feeding their 5 children the leftover sorghum from a locally produced drink only once per day. When the couple joined the DIG program, they were skeptical of the outcome as many NGO’s had come to their village for projects that were short-term.

Community Transformation

4 Ways to Improve Your Mental Health by Gardening

June 14, 2018

Guest Author, Maria Cannon, wrote this article about the mental health benefits of gardening. While DIG often focuses on the food security, nutrition, and income benefits of our garden programming there are so many other gains including these listed below.

Climate Resilience

DIG Deeper: Batwa Program Entering Year 2

April 16, 2018

After getting on the ground in November 2016, DIG spent two months undergoing an intensive site assessment through a baseline study, stakeholder analysis, committee and leadership meetings, crop viability study, building a team, and fine tuning the implementation model.

Community Transformation

6 Months DIG-ing with the Batwa

May 2, 2017

The Batwa have been caught in a cycle of poverty since 1992 after being evicted from the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest and becoming conservation refugees. Still to this day, the Batwa have some of the worst health outcomes certainly in Uganda if not in all of Africa.