1. Kitchen Gardening

The Kitchen garden project was founded on May 2020 by the TVT economic advisor, with the objective of helping women and youth in the community grow and support their families with food especially during this Covid 19 pandemic. The idea of this project was inspired by the suffering and the struggles of the women and the youth during this Covid 19 Pandemic to sustain their basic needs. The project was aimed at empowering the women and youth in the community.

Benefits to women

Women are the foundation of most of our families and many times they are denied equitable opportunities to develop themselves they are looked down upon but, the kitchen gardening project gave them an opportunity to change that. The project provided them with various seeds of a typical kitchen garden which includes Kales, spinach, green pepper, onions, and tomatoes. This provided vegetables for food and most important of all it gave them an income generating activity to be self-reliant which would enable them also support the children and family through the surplus production. The kitchen garden project was able to help more than twenty-four women groups namely: Ginco Parents, Mwangaza, Lairiru, Lailuba Umoja, Lailuba Mwangaza, Mananda, Kathuri Mbuuri, Mbuuri Tunza Punda, Kiremu Kaichuiri, Kiaare Mutethia, Kalantina, Mundaakine, Kaimenyi, Mukiria, Mutethia, Kwathumara, Itaalia, Toongo twelu, Dish Group, Kiare 2 Bridge, Wendo, Neeema, Marion, Kamathi. All the group totaled to more than 4000 members. The project attracted and helped a lot of women from different parts of Meru county.

Benefits to Youth

With students out of school and the pandemic causing troubles all over the country there was need to prevent the youth from engaging in criminal activities and use of drug and substance abuse due lack of appropriate education during the Covid 19 Period. TVT was able to incorporate some youth to work in the kitchen garden project. The project happened in three phases.

PHASE ONE May 2020

(i) Preparation of Nursery beds. (ii) Planting of the seeds After several weeks of hard work, the seedlings sprout. (iii) Nurseries with Onions, kales, tomatoes and spinach. (iv) Seedlings ready for distribution for transplantation. (v) Women group leaders receiving the seedlings for distribution to their members. Women groups from various parts of the community were identified and their leaders came and received the seedlings to distribute to their members this would ensure proper and even distribution of the seedlings. The surrounding members of the community and the neighbors were also not left out they came out in large numbers and received the seedlings. This project attracted a lot of interest from the women in the community and hence there was need for phase two.

PHASE 2

Thank God the first phase was a success since a lot of women benefited from the project but there were a lot of women still in need of the seedlings. Women spread out word about these miraculous kitchen garden project initiated by the TVT economic advisor and with increasing tension of where to find food due to the Covid 19 pandemic even created more need to help more women. Within no time, with the support of man behind the kitchen garden project, phase two began. This time more seeds were planted. (i) Kales, onions, spinach and tomatoes seedlings ready after a few weeks. (ii) Planting weeding and taking care of the nurseries (iii) Watering the nurseries, water being the main challenge. (iv) Fetching water with cans. (v) Ready seedlings (Kales onions spinach and tomatoes) Successful distribution of the seedlings. Phase two was a great success it attracted a lot of people from different parts of Meru county. It covered and ensured a lot of women from the community benefited. People from the larger Meru county South and North Imenti came out in large numbers to benefit from the project. Follow up of the seedlings from the kitchen garden. After visiting several families, we confirmed that the projected really benefited a lot of women. Many of them confessed that they were able to use the harvest for consumption at home and sell surplus to cater for other family needs. They said they saved a lot of money which could have been used for buying them vegetables which they have produced by the help of the kitchen garden project. Some of the beneficiaries of the project who were very happy and enjoying the fruits of the kitchen garden project. They are happy to get the seedlings since they cannot afford to buy them individually since they are very expensive. They also said they are facing a major challenge of water since water is very scarce in the area but despite that they are struggling to set food on the table.