Stories From The Field - Page 8 of 12

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

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Budding Businesses – A Story of a Elizabeth Omiti

September 8, 2015

Elizabeth Achieng Omiti is a 52-year-old DIG-trained farmer in Migori County, Kenya. She is a widow, a mother of three daughters and two sons. She is also the sole provider for five grandchildren who were left with her by their mother several years ago. Before DIG came to the area, Elizabeth was growing sugarcane and maize exclusively. She struggled daily to put food on her table, and pay her grandchildren’s school fees. Sugarcane was what her husband had always

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Day 4 & 5 of Living Below the Line for DIG: There’s No Me Without You

May 1, 2015

Finally, it’s Friday and I have only two meals left before my Live Below the Line challenge for Development in Gardening (DIG) is complete. This time tomorrow I’ll be sipping a cup of coffee and hopefully making some waffles with raspberries on top! It’s seem so close yet still so far away. It’s been a hard week, but it’s not as though I’ve suffered. I’ve actually eaten pretty well. Last night I couldn’t even finish my dinner as it was

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Day 3 of Living Below the Line for DIG: Unexpected Turn of Events

April 30, 2015

So pretty much the worst thing that could have happened to me in this Live Below the Line challenge for Development in Gardening where I have to eat and drink on $1.50 a day for a week, just happened…well, maybe not the worst thing but pretty close. Last night I was all set to make my precious dinner. After getting my son to bed, my stomach rumbling, somehow having resisted the urge to pick-up any uneaten cheese off his dinner plate, I got

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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

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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

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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,

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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

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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

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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

Plant Seeds That Reap Life