Recovery Efforts in Haiti

Haiti is struggling to recover from the devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck near Port-Au-Prince on January 13. Recent estimates suggest the earthquake claimed more than 100,000 lives and left nearly a million Haitians homeless.

Since 2008 TGC has worked with Project Medishare, a non-profit organization that provides health care for more than 75,000 Haitians. Project Medishare doctors are currently providing vital medical relief on the ground in Haiti. You can follow Project Medishare's work in Haiti here.

Prior to the earthquake, TGC and Project Medishare worked together to develop EarthBox vegetable gardens in Haiti’s central plateau, one of the country’s poorest regions. The TGC-Project Medishare partnership is ideal because sustainable agriculture and access to healthy food are key to improving community health care.

A trial garden using 20 EarthBoxes was initially set up to explore which locally-grown vegetables would flourish in the EarthBox, and to develop local mediums and planting methods. Following the success of these trials, EarthBox vegetable gardens have been set up in five elementary schools in the villages of Thomonde and Marmont and a local clinic in Marmont. A group of poor, at-risk adolescents called IDEJEN (Young Idea) has also been involved in the project, receiving hands-on training in growing produce using the EarthBox. This work will become vital once immediate relief efforts come to an end and attention shifts to Haiti's long-term reconstruction.

If you would like to help us achieve this goal, please visit TheGrowingConnection.org or ProjectMedishare.org.

The Growing Connection in South Africa

In partnership with Operation Lionheart and the Open Society Institute, TGC is currently developing several EarthBox vegetable gardens in South Africa. So far, in addition to a large demonstration and research garden, there are four EarthBox vegetable gardens with over 500 EarthBoxes in the country. Thanks to the ongoing support from Operation Lionheart each site receives horticultural training and they are already starting to make real progress.

For example, the Mother of Peace orphanage in Johannesburg (above) has a garden with 1000 EarthBoxes and in only six weeks after planting they have been able to harvest vegetables such as spinach and zucchini twice. The progress these gardens in South Africa have made in a very short amount of time is very exciting and you can continue to follow their progress through this blog!