Stories From The Field: Financial Resilience
Filters

Blogs

Make the Market Come to You

April 21, 2016

With a growing number graduated DIG farmers who are seeing their small vegetable plots as an entrepreneurial opportunity, DIG decided to established an organic vegetable stall at our partner hospital, Lwala Community Alliance (LCA), to create a new link to the local market economy.

Read More

Blogs

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

Read More

Blogs

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,

Read More

Blogs

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

Read More

Blogs

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

Read More

Blogs

Hellen Odira Omingo: DIG Farmer and Entrepreneur

September 18, 2013

I spent this morning with Hellen Odira Omingo, a DIG farmer participating in our Producer Group Program in North Kamagambo, Kenya. Hellen is a widow blessed with 4 children and a beautiful spirit.  She was trained by DIG last year in our Farmer Field School program and selected to join the Todnal Producer Group. DIG launched the Producer Group Program several months ago as a pilot program to help small-holder farmers shift their perspective from subsitence farming alone to farming as

Read More