LIFT supports the Food Security Working Group (FSWG), an organisation that brings together community based organisations, local and international non-governmental organisations and individuals working on food security and livelihoods. Since 2012, FSWG has been implementing a LIFT -funded project, to facilitate knowledge sharing and capacity building within FSWG and other interested stakeholders. The aim is to improve food security programming and to build linkages between members, the international community, and private and public sectors to promote pro-poor public policy and practices.
Teaching school children the importance of good nutrition, and giving them hands-on experience of growing their own food, was the focus of a sub-project implemented by Sympathy Hands Community Development Organisation. Over eight months in three villages of Kyaiklatt Township in the Ayeyarwady Delta, the ‘Capacity Building for Food Safety and Nutrition and School Gardening’' project involved three training events in the village school; on Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), on establishing school vegetable farming, and distributing Information, Education and Communication (IEC) materials focused on good nutrition, including DVDs and CDs.
230 students from Years 5 - 7 took part in the training activites and, to inject fun into the activites, a plastic art-piece competition, an essay writing competition, and three easy quiz events took place.
The school vegetable garden has so far brought in 36,200 kyat in sales, and some of the vegetables are given to the plantation volunteer students and teachers.
The headmistress provided impetus for the project, and the children themselves considered it to be a resounding success - most of them requested that more activities like this are organised in the future.
Feedback from the school snack seller was that the students are no longer buying snacks; instead they eat salad which they have helped to grow. One parent explained that her young daughter now always reminds her not to use MSG (monosodium glutamate cooking powder).
In the words of a song written by one of the children, “Please don’t let me eat from a snack seller, Mum, and from now on, Dad, I want to eat food that I planted in our garden! Let’s eat nutritious food.”
