Elderly Support in Latin America

Across Phoenix we are always trialing new ideas to try and improve our services to the communities we work in and with our older people's programme, we are no different.

Handing out food to the older members of the communities has always worked really well for them, but, in other projects we have been trialing veggie gardens. These are plots of land in the community where we provide the seeds and fertilizer to the community and, on rotation, they tend the garden and share the veggies between those of the cooperative.

In Ecuador we have put a veggie garden in each of the communities and so far they have grown lots of different vegetables including spinach, onions and peas and it has been going really well!

"The Mums are really enjoying the vegetables and we have been giving them hints and tips on recipes to incorporate the new foods in their diet. The community are really getting involved in the projects, and in the home, everyone is benefiting for the meals."

Zoe, Ecuador project manager

We think this is a fantastic way to involve the whole community in improving the diet of their entire families. In Guatemala, the older people will be able to tend the gardens and then take the food home, learn how to use the vegetables in cooking and feed the whole family. From the oldest to the youngest member, every person in the family will recieve more nutrition from the garden - it is a whole community effort!

Thanks to continued donations from you, we can now trial this in Guatemala and will be keeping you updated on how the project is progressing! 

Thanks very much!

Links:

• Latest news from Guatemala