Little Maung Phyu Ko loves cucumbers – especially when they are plucked fresh from his mother’s garden. Today, the two-year-old is learning that flowers become vegetables only when they are allowed to grow. His mother Than Than Win, a skilled gardener who truly does have green fingers, is giving her son a love of gardening early, because this knowledge has changed her life, writes Jenny Macintyre, Communications Officer for the Tat Lan Programme.
Given Myanmar’s high under-nutrition and stunting rates, LIFT has made the improved nutrition of women, men, and children a strategy objective. LIFT is addressing nutrition with a variety of initatives. As part of the Tat Lan programme in Rakhine State, maternal cash transfers are given to mothers in the 1000 Days window - from a child's conception through to its second birthday - alongside nutrition and hygiene education. Training in vegetable gardening is also available, helping to improve food security and access to nutritious food.
Than Than Win learned how to grow vegetables at a Tat Lan training where she received her first seeds – a variety of coriander, cucumber, eggplant, pumpkin, chilli, bitter gourd and long bean seeds. The abundant growth in her plants is evidence of Than Than Win’s gardening expertise.
“I water and weed my garden every day, because I want to give my family nutritious meals,” says the 36-year-old, who also attended a Tat Lan Mother-to-Mother Support Group to learn about the best food for her baby, and her family. “I give my family two nutritious meals a day. We eat eggs, or chicken, and fish with our vegetables and rice.”
Than Than Win’s education ended at grade 5, and by the age of 18 she was a young married mother. She never dreamed she might be able to earn money or build a small business for herself, but gardening is opening the window to opportunity. “I started growing vegetables for my family, then I had some extra that I could sell to my neighbours. Now, I am harvesting my chilli, drying it and packaging it to sell in our Chaung Gyi village market and the Minbya Township market.”
Chilli grown in the Minbya delta is particularly flavoursome and becoming famous throughout Rakhine State. Than Than Win plans to supplement her husband’s income from the paddy harvest with her chilli sales, so they can afford to send their 18-year-old daughter to Yangon to learn tailoring skills.
“I want Than Than Zin to learn sewing, so she can be proud of her achievements and have a life outside our village,” says Than Than Win, an enlightened mother.
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In 2016, LIFT is also rolling out an innovative cash transfer programme to rural women through its Delta and Dry Zone programmes. This will support improved nutrition in the first one thousand days of a child's life - from conception to two years of age. The initiative includes nutrition education and improved sanitation. Watch LIFT's 1000 Days video below.
