Stories From The Field – Page 7

Day 2 of Living Below the Line for DIG: The Diversity of Food

April 29, 2015

One of the hardest things about my challenge to Live Below the Line for Development in Gardening (DIG) is trying to get creative with the materials I purchased. Brown rice, regular and sweet potatoes, a fairly uninteresting frozen vegetable mix, black beans, and some other staples don’t provide much pop when you’re eating them every day. I would have loved to have bought a little avocado, some limes, a little ginger, some mango, but I knew if I purchased any of these instead of the staples

Nutrition

Day 1 of Living Below the Line for DIG: Eat Your Vegetables

April 28, 2015

Monday: Day 1 of the challenge.Yesterday was the first day of my Live Below the Line Challenge for Development in Gardening. It occurred to me while I was devouring my dinner how little I ate that day (details and photos below). The realization didn’t just happen out of nowhere like- funny, all I ate today were two meals, I wonder what’s on TV? But more like – wow, I was so hangry before I sat down for this meal I didn’t even notice they

Nutrition

Living Below the Line for DIG

April 27, 2015

Being the Executive Director for Development in Gardening, an organization represented in this year’s Live Below the Line campaign I felt it was only right that I commit to actually participating in the campaign myself. I certainly could not be asking others to do something I would not do, and I saw it as an opportunity to connect with DIG’s work in a way I don’t typically experience in the US. I decided several months ago to take the 5 day challenge,

Community Transformation

Why Home Gardens are Important!

December 2, 2014

DIG first started doing home gardens in 2006 thanks to Koumba! While Koumba was being inspired by DIG’s training, we were being inspired by her. It was she who asked for and received DIG’s first Home Garden. She asked if we could help her with some of the initial seed money to get a garden started in the small space behind her home. Koumba knew she could feed her family from this otherwise discarded space and would use her

Nutrition

The Re-discovery of Food

October 13, 2014

By: Maggie Black, an independent writer on issues of international development Today, nearly one billion people in the world go hungry on a daily basis. In Africa, the figure is around 240 million. This is a cause of international outcry – when it tips over into starvation and famine. But the day-to-day problem is rarely examined from the perspective of those whose cooking-pots and eating bowls are half-empty, whose stomachs constantly cramp, who look and feel dull, listless and out

Adventure Trips

I DIG Kenya 2014

October 8, 2014

We set off on an adventure……. “I am not the same having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world.” ― Mary Anne Radmacher

Food Security

What it Takes to End Hunger

June 11, 2014

By Maggie Black Vida Aooko Bitta, 30 years old and mother of four, is one of a DIG (Development in Gardening) team of community facilitators in Rongo District, Western Kenya. What she and the team are trying to do is transform the diet, improve the well-being and fill the pocket-books of local farming families. Many of these are among the 240 million Africans who regularly go hungry. Vida’s home is just a mile away from the Lwala community hospital

Community Transformation

A True Multi-Disciplinary Approach: Fighting Stigma, Improving Health, and Building Livelihoods in a Sustainable Way

April 15, 2014

By: Maggie Black Joseph and Rugina Abok have an uphill struggle to make ends meet. Both are living with HIV, which in Rongo district, Western Kenya, has a 16-20% prevalence rate, well above the national average of 12%. Of their five children, four are now married and off their hands, but their youngest son, Meshak, 14-years-old is still in primary school. His future is what concerns them most. Being open about HIV is still difficult because of the stigma

Community Transformation

February 17, 2014

Here is a little compilation of some of our favorite DIG farmers!

Community Transformation

Farewell Tobias!

January 29, 2014

It is with very mixed emotions that DIG says farewell to our Local Facilitator, Tobias Owour. Tobias has been with the DIG since the very beginning of our Lwala Hospital Project. He was our first hire in Lwala and we could not have made a better choice. Tobias came to us with high recommendations from his grandmother who said, “I decided long before he was grown that he had a gift for working with the ground.” Tobias’ passion for

Community Transformation

DIG’s Newest Team Member Takes on Uganda

January 29, 2014

Thanks to a group of supporters in Denver and a grant from Project Redwood, Steve Eggers joined DIG as our newest program intern in October 2013. Of course DIG immediately liked him because of our fond affection for ‘Steves’…but beyond that he impressed us with his thoughtful questions about our work, his agriculture experience, and his general attitude towards life and development. Steve spent two months with the DIG Kenya Team learning about the program and agriculture in Western

History of Our Growth

DIG Farmer Profile: Elaine Dabiré

January 28, 2014

Eliane Dabiré, 28, is a member of the AMES HIV Support Group in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. DIG’s Local Facilitator, Salam Sawadogo, chatted with her a few weeks ago about her life and DIG. HIV Status: I was sick for a long time and finally decided to visit the doctor when I began to have sores all over my body. He advised me to the see the president of the AMES HIV Support Group as well as take an HIV test.

Plant Seeds That Reap Life