Young Gardeners - Changing Lives!

Raising environmental awareness among children in Masaya

The LMLG is once again working in partnership with the Association for Integrated Community Development (ADIC), to facilitate a project for children in Las Cortezas, a rural area of Masaya where we have not previously worked.

The Aim

Our goal is to develop an elementary environmental education programme for 200 children, aged up to 12 years, in a rural primary school. A garden will be established in the school grounds to provide pupils and teachers with hands-on-training in growing organic vegetables, fruit, flowers and trees. The garden will include a water tank to supply the crops, a chicken coop, a cooking area with a solar cooker for occasional school meals and a recreation area with swings, a slide and a climbing frame.

The Project has multiple and long term benefits for pupils, teachers, parents and the community at large.

• The garden provides a practical and recreational facility to support children in all aspects of their development as well as an educational resource to help teachers implement the curriculum.

• Raising environmental awareness at an early age increases understanding of the link between food and the environment.

• Teaching sustainable agricultural skills to children in rural communities is essential because many families who rely on subsistence farming no longer use organic methods and often struggle to feed their families as they cannot afford fertilisers and pesticides.

• Engaging parents as well as children in the project encourages community participation and extends the learning, giving adults new skills which they can use to cultivate their own food to supplement their incomes and improve the family diet.

• Reforestation through tree planting helps to conserve the natural habitat for future generations.

What the LMLG is funding

We are raising funds for teacher training, (to be delivered by ADIC), educational materials, garden equipment (seeds, plants, trees and tools), the construction of the water tank, the chicken coop (including chickens), the cooking area and the playground equipment.

We believe that healthy, happy children do better in school and are more likely to achieve their potential and break out of the cycle of poverty.

IF YOU, YOUR SCHOOL OR YOUR ORGANISATION WOULD LIKE TO CONTRIBUTE TO CHANGING THE LIVES OF YOUNG PEOPLE IN MASAYA, Click Here and complete THE DONATION FORM.