Benefits of building school gardens

Implementing school gardens

BUILD SCHOOL GARDENS: WHY IT’S IMPORTANT
According to UNICEF data from 2007, Guatemala has the highest percentage of chronically malnourished girls and boys in Latin America, and the fourth highest in the world. On these trips, our students and volunteers created beautiful spaces in a school which will contribute to feeding school children while imparting important techniques that they can bring back to their families and communities to combat malnutrition.

We have built a dozen gardens in local schools, alongside school children, in order to improve food sovereignty in the area. It was also a great opportunity for cross-cultural interaction among students.


Huerto construído por Where there be dragons

10 THINGS STUDENTS AND VOLUNTEERS LEARNED

  1. What the Guatemalan civil war was like, as told by a woman who lived through it.
  2. What Mayan cosmology is all about.
  3. What your personal nawal is, and what it means.
  4. How permaculture is practiced, and how it can be relevant to your own life.
  5. What traditional Guatemalan food tastes like.
  6. How a school can grow healthy, nutritious food at very little cost.
  7. What a small local school looks like, and how it can function with few resources.
  8. How permaculture principles can help with soil conservation, land and water management.
  9. The invariable engagement of Guatemalan schoolchildren when it comes to planting a garden.
  10. The dazzling colors and textures of a Guatemalan village on Lake Atitlán.