Food Security - DIG

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.

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.

Food Security

A Young Mother Stepping Up

September 9, 2015

Through a partnership with the Lwala Community Alliance (LCA) in North Kamagambo, Kenya, DIG met and started working with a young woman named Eunice. LCA had been assisting her through their Out of School Mentoring for Girls program. Recently widowed and only 26 years old, Eunice was left to care single-handedly for her four children, ages ten, four, two and one. She has a lot stacked against her. She knows that at any moment her late husband’s brothers could legally

Financial Resilience

Growing Up Resilient

September 8, 2015

Zakayo Mikwanga is recognized as one of DIG’s most successful home gardeners. He proudly harvests kale, carrots, and other vegetables every day of the year without interruption. “I am a busy person,” he laughs. “Unlike before, my family is learning new techniques as we enjoy the benefits of having a garden with many different vegetables.” Growing up, Zakayo had a father who, though poor, valued a good education – a rare privilege in 1960s Kenya. Zakayo would take his

Financial Resilience

The Wechaya HIV Support Group

September 8, 2015

It’s an early, cool Wednesday morning; the sun is still low in the sky, but the chorus of cicadas and crickets reminds us of the heat that’s coming. The Wechaya HIV Support Group is meeting in their community garden. Quiet talking and laughing can be heard as women dressed in vibrantly patterned skirts make their way down the narrow cow paths and gather in the shade of a broad mango tree. Organized through DIG’s Mobile Farmer Field School program,

Financial Resilience

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

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

Food Security

Story from the Field: Wilfreda Anyang

May 8, 2012

Wilfreda Anyango is a mother of 8 children from Oboch Village of Kameji in North Kamagambo, Kenya. Wilfreda has to work extra hard to supplement the little income her husband is getting as a casual laborer in a nearby school since she has such a large family. Wilfreda joined DIG’s sustainable agriculture training because she is a member of the Umama Salama Group (Lwala Community Alliance Women’s group who work as community health workers to encourage women to give birth