House Gardening Helps Afghan Women to Overcome Urban Poverty

"At present we are trying to solve the problem of food security using three different approaches - vocational trainings, self-help groups and urban agriculture. We'll see which one will work best for the local context, "says program manager of urban poverty Ann-Katrina Bregovic and adds that a diet of most poor Afghan families is not very balanced and low nutritional value. "The menu often consists only of bread and broth. If people eat some vegetables, they are absolutely overcooked and do not have any significant nutrition value anymore. "

Fatima is example for other women

This was the situation in which also the family of Fatima lived. Her family moved several years ago from a rural region of province Balkh to the city of Mazar-e Sharif. "We had a poor diet, and the members of my family were suffering from malnutrition," says Fatima. "Then People in Need´s team visited me in my house, and selected me as a beneficiary because of me being very poor and vulnerable. I have received a three days training on kitchen gardening and in the end of the training, PIN provided me seeds, seedlings and basic tools to start my own garden," says Fatima, for which, as she says, the work on the garden became a pleasure. Perhaps it was because of her enthusiasm that she has better progress and better gardening results than other women from the neighborhood. And this all despite the crippled leg, which makes it difficult for her to move.

"Fatima harvests more vegetables, handles it garden very well, and knows organic pest controls. She is also very responsive to our actions. Therefore, we give her as an example to other women who have often come to her for advice," says Mirwais Aslam, PIN´s urban poverty manager in Mazar-e Sharif.

Considering Fatima´s good performance in Kitchen Gardening and her interest in innovative projects, PIN together with funds from European Commission constructed a greenhouse in her house. Now she can grow vegetables all year round and thus provide her family with food supply also during the winter months.

The prevalence of diarrhea among children is around 25%

However, this was not the end of collaboration with Fatima. PIN for her and other women from Mazar-e Sharif held training on good practices of personal hygiene. Now they are able to prevent diarrheal diseases, and reduce the chance of malnutrition, which is not caused solely by inadequate intake of nutrients, but also by poor hygiene habits and drinking untreated water. "The diarrhea prevalence in under five year olds in Mazar-e Sharif is around 20-25%," says Ann-Katrina Bregovic.

"My life situation was really bad before benefitting from the activities implemented by PIN. But since then I have observed so many positive changes in my life. Previously we had difficulty in buying vegetables because of being poor, but now we can consume the vegetables grown in our house. And also the nutrition and hygiene trainings helped us on how to cook the vegetables in healthy way and to decrease the level of diarrhea in our household," says Fatima.

"Malnutrition has always been there"

"Over the last two years we have trained in urban gardening five hundred women, of whom two hundred also attended trainings on good hygiene practices," says Ann-Katrina Bregovic, adding that PIN helped hundreds of other women to establish self-help groups and arrange them vocational trainings. "It's all aimed at improving food security and reducing malnutrition."

Malnutrition is widespread in Afghanistan, but often underestimated and unsolved problem. "In Afghanistan you cannot say that malnutrition arose at some point. The country has been at war for over three decades. Malnutrition has always been there, but what we are seeing now is that most people are not aware that malnutrition is a serious issue. Even seriously malnourished children are considered ill, but the causes are not understood,“ says Bregovic.