Chart Chea is caring for a very successful garden that helps her feed her family as well as her daughter’s family helping all along the road to “Self-reliance”. “My family eats nutritious food 3 times every day now” said Chea as she gave a tour of her garden that is flourishing thanks to help coming from LDS Charities (LDSC).
- Branch President Nuth Yi with Chart Chea in front of her garden
- Garden Project at the home of Chart Chea
- Chart Chea pumps water for her garden
- Garden Project in Kampong Thom Province
- Inspecting Chart Chea's garden in Kampong Thom Province
- Growing onions as part of a garden project in Kampong Thom
| Temple Square is always beautiful in the springtime. Gardeners work to prepare the ground for General Conference. © 2012 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. | 1 / 2 |
The leadership of the Church of Jesus Christ in the Kampong Thom area and LDS Charities envisioned a project that would help people learn gardening and aid them to become more self-reliant.
Many people in the area are unable to find unemployment that pays enough to provide the food required to support their families. After considerable planning and preparation the self-reliance project became reality at the end of the rainy season in late 2014. The garden project included LDS Charities providing pots, soil, fencing, hoses, shovels, watering cans, fertilizer and seeds. The participating families were given training by their local Branch President, Nuth Yi, who taught his successful farming techniques to the participants. Yi is a successful farmer that has grown successful crops and created successful gardens for many years.
The gardening project began by creating raised beds to protect the garden from flooding. The effort increased the growing season by 3 to 4 months. President Yi with the help of his counselor, Chun Sokha are teaching the garden workshops that included training in all aspects gardening. They include proper seedbed preparation, production of compost, fertilizer and correct pesticide use and better use of water resources. The training materials included come from Try Young, a Cambodian Agriculture College graduate, who has helped other successful garden projects in Cambodia. The women participating in the project are learning about nutrition, sanitary food preparation and food storage using 20 liter plastic buckets for rice and other dry foods storage.
During the two year project, participating families are expected to develop a sustainable garden for home food production helping each family to be self-reliant by raising nutritious food rather than purchasing everything as in the past. An additional benefit is anticipated. They will be able to supplement their income by selling the extra produce and seeds they don't use.
The objectives of the project include feeding families three meals a day, growing successful gardens for at least 2 years, purchasing chickens with the income from selling extra produce, learning the basics of good nutrition, improved sanitary food preparation, and learning to understand the principles of food storage.
Twenty-five families who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as well as 15 families that are not members of the Church are benefiting from the project. LDS Charities has a 15 year history of helping all needy Cambodian people.