Tangalle Children - LETS GROW

Home Gardening -Poly Bag

MORE DETAILS

Project Proposal
for

For tsunami effected people at Tangalle

Tsunami housing scheme.

There is nothing nicer than picking fresh fruits and vegetables; not only do they taste better but the satisfaction of growing it yourself is immense.

OUR WORD

HEALTHY PEOPLE FOR WEALTHY NATION

WHAT WE DO

NEVER GIVE UP UNTIL IT IS DONE

Project period - Jan 2008 to Dec 2010

Coverage - Tangalle division

Direct beneficiaries - Tsunami affected families

Local management - Tangalle Children Relay

Funds provided by - Mr. & Mrs. Christ Janet from G/ Britain

History

An unexpected tsunami hit Tangalle coastal strip very badly and mercilessly. This incident left thousands of people homeless and elpless.
The fantastic & merciful reaction worldwide towards those hopeless people could give a hope to for the victims to live. Greatest among them were to provide them a shelter in a safe area away from such threats.

Present situation

The time has passed. 3^rd anniversary is just in 2 months to come. I personally value the greatest deed done by entire world for tsunami affected people in Sri Lanka.

Yet, in the meantime providing a shelter and occupying them away from their usual fisheries background are still a matter to debate. This practice has largely affected the small scale daily fisherman. It is identified that these fishermen should reside in the vicinity of coastal tripe to study the correct and right timing to go for catching. The wind, currents, color of water, waves and sea birds are still the main sings for local fishing community to understand possible days catch.

Why they should be supported

Thus, living away from the shore has resulted dropping their daily catch in considerable portion. So, those families then have to find some extra income to fill this gap. Normally the traditional fishing community is not used to do any other activities than fishing. The wives were used to stay home while husband go way for fishing. The wife did the cooking and looking after the children and other house hold activities. Those still had extra time, engaged making core ropes or drying fish. But when they are away from the sea, those women can’t engage in such activities to ad extra income to the family.

The tsunami housing schemes, where those people now occupied are packed houses with limited open space. They are all from the same situation and none of them could offer to invest for new job opportunities. So the lonely women in confined houses need ways to raise their income to suite the family requirements.

What we propose

The best possible and affordable opportunity that Tangalle Children Relay has identified for those communities is to introduce and assist them to grow their own vegetable consumption at their limited open spaces. Some people have already started this project, but still many others need financial supports, knowledge and encouragement to begin.

According to the researches

The latest statistics shows that very few families are now living along the coastal strip after tsunami. Also those houses are scattered along the beach. So it makes hard to gather them together to start a project. So the most suitable device is to go tsunami housing schemes where the most needs prevail.

Where to initiate the project

We have already identified several large tsunami housing schemes around Tangalle town. Approximately they are 4 to 10 km away from Tangalle. The nearest one to Tangalle is called “Yayawaththa – Godigamuwa” is located 04 km along Kataragama road. This housing scheme is designed constructed by “Plan International” organization after tsunami. There are 200 houses occupied there since 18 months. They are from several villagers and about 1000 in population. There is a large amount of manpower, which is not wisely utilized.

A small scaled poly bag gardening to grow the daily vegetable consumption will be a sound advantage for their family budget and nutrition as well. Children’s nutrition is a major issue of their family development.

Domestic Garbage for composting.

How TCR is going to implement this project at Yayawaththa Tsunami Housing Scheme.

· Find out existing C.B.O. in this community, which are currently in operation.

· If not, to assemble the community and to form a strong CBO for poly gardening.

· To get the services of experts in the relevant field in the region to give and guide lectures for the people to get better knowledge and idea of poly bag gardening and compose production.

· Explain them the importance of having their own fresh vegetable at home.

· Explain them the importance of nutrition and health of their own children. How it could improve their family financially and socially.

· Select a group of families that really having an interest on the subject to continue.

· Provide them with basic needs, such as compose, poly bags, seeds, and some hand tools.

· Find traditional chemical free pesticides from the surrounding.

· Start and guide them for vegetable gardening.

started growing some of my own food when I moved into a flat that had an old apple tree; the thrill I got from picking my first apple is something I can still remember. The best news of all is that you don't need to have a huge

Requirements.
Employ a young talented person (male or female) as Field Officer full time for the first 6 months.
This Field Officer’s duty will follow –Visit the housing scheme regularly.
Coordinate with TCR management and other relative personals including trainers.
Form and guide CBO towards the goals set by management.
Advice the members at any encountered difficulty. If needed get advises from the management.
Arrange purchases of necessary material and keep correct records and bills. Evaluate each garden to find out difficulties encountered by them and find solutions. (Locations and quality of the soil)
Coordinate with relevant state officials and private organizations and be updated with latest technology and utilize them wisely in our project.
Encourage each family by visiting and promoting them regularly.
Arrange awareness programs to update the family members with latest knowledge.
Be responsible of the quality of the gardening.
Make aware the general community by providing lectures regarding fresh vegetable and its nutrition.
To check with the relevant experts and determine, which vegetable could make a better harvest for this region.

Responsibilities of Tangalle Children Relay (TCR).To select 100 families to start. Divide them in to 10 groups according to their location. Appoint a leader for each group. Delegate their responsibilities to each leader and provide them with sufficient training.

·        TCR to organize all financial transactions and keeping records of all the events.

·        TCR is responsible for all the purchases and cost.

·        TCR should coordinate with the donor parties with latest updates and progresses regularly.

·        TCR should evaluate whole project and its progress and make necessary reports and submit them to the donor parties in time.

·        Inspect the village gardens and coordinate the duty of the field officer.

·        Communicate with the government officials and media to give publicity for this project.

·        Coordinate with other similar gardening projects to share the knowledge.

·        Organize annual competitions and award them with consolable presents to motivate them.

·        Improve and expand the project to other families in other tsunami housing schemes.

·        Estimate the final cost for the first 6 months of the project.

Possible difficulties to encounter.

·        Unexpected draught and insufficient water supply to the gardens.

Comments – There is a new water supply has connected to the main water stream recently. It is one of the largest water recourse connected to this water new water project. So the risk is very less estimated.

·        Unexpected decease spread among gardens.

Comments – there is an agricultural research centre at next town. It will be helpful to identify and treat them easily in such situations.

·        Difficulty of collecting enough garbage toproduce necessary composting.

Comments – It should be estimated by the knowledge of experts. Possibly there would be plenty of garbage for sufficient composting.

Possible vegetable to grow in these gardens.

·        Tomato

·        Beans

·        Radish

·       Brinjal (Eggplant)

· Lady’s finger (Okra)

·        Winged bean

·        Pumpkin

·        Chilies

·        Green leafy vegetables

·        Bitter Gourd

·        Snake gourd

·        Cucumber

·        Curry chilies

·        Spinach

·        Bottle gourd
Snake gourd

·       Luffa(Ridge gourd)

Budget for the first 06 six months

Catagory

St/pounds

SL/Rupees

Field officers salary
266.00

25000 Poly bags
218.00

Vegetable seeds for the first time.
45.00

Composting for first time
68.00

Covering fences
117.00

Lecturer fees
68.00

Transport
55.00

Stationary
18.00

Hand tool for gadeners
45.00

Administrative fee
100.00

Average investment for each family
10.00

Total investment for the full project
1000.00

Expected benefit per family per Monht
4.50



     The families will start to consume the harvest right after two months time of Commencement. One crop could last for 06 to 08 months.

    There are one or two general tips to bear in mind:

1.     You will need to water regularly -

2.     You will need to feed the plants once the flowers appear.

3.    Drainage is important so ensure your container has holes in the bottom and use some stones or broken pots sharks in the bottom to increase drainage.

4.     Keep free of weeds, in a small space you want to be nourishing the plants and not the weeds.

5.     Grow things that you will like to eat.

6.     Grow things that are easy to grow.

7.     Don’t imagine that you can grow all your vegetable needs at home.

                                          HOME TOP

Home Gardening -Poly Bag

For tsunami effected people at Tangalle

Tsunami housing scheme.

OUR WORD
HEALTHY PEOPLE FOR WEALTHY NATION

WHAT WE DO
NEVER GIVE UP, UNTIL IT IS DONE !

Tangalle Children Relay (TCR) has successfully involved with vegetable growing project at Yaya Wattha Tsunami Housing Scheme.

Officially TCR started this project for the year 2008, but started its researches and data collection by mid of December 2007.

By mid of January 2008, TCR has selected 20 families that are having a great interest of growing vegetables.

In the meantime, Miss. Chandrika, who was selected as the project officer decided to marry. Therefore she missed the chance of continue with TCR. So TCR immediately recruited Miss. Chandani as the new project officer. Her data profile will be attached with this document.

As to the research done by her, following need and difficulties were noted.

· Almost everybody was asking for tools as their new homes are not yet equipped with gardening tools.

· The need of permanent fences to cover and protect the garden from the cows and other animals.

· The necessary knowledge and techniques to get a better harvest.

For above requirements, TCR has taken following actions.

· Arrange an officer from Agricultural department and giving them a lecture of basic vegetable gardening theories and lessons with many advises of the value of fresh vegetable without chemicals. He was given a lecture of 3 hours.

· TCR had already formed 02 groups of families each comprise of 10.

· These 20 families were given following items free of charge.

1. 200 poly bags (ten bags each for the start)

2. Five kinds of seeds

3. 2 large knives

4. 2 large Crow bars

5. 4 plastic pans

6. 4 mamotee

7. 4 shovels

8. 6 Forks

Except the bags and seeds, other tools supposed to share among them.

· For the fences around the gardens, TCR is still taking measures to identify this problem and to find solutions. It seems a bit complicated for the moment.

The next step will be to continue with these 20 families and join with other 20 families.

Here are the new families willing to join the next team wanted to admit their names.

Here is the two groups participated for the meeting.

This is the moment; the officer of Agriculture department handed over the tools officially to the team leader. She supposes to keep these tools under her supervision and share them among the families.

Thank you.
Prepared by

Mahendra.

20 – 01 – 2008

Tangalle.

Home Gardening - Poly Bag

For tsunami effected people at Tangalle

Tsunami housing scheme.

OUR WORD

HEALTHY PEOPLE FOR WEALTHY NATION

WHAT WE DO

NEVER GIVE UP UNTIL IT IS DONE

Update February 2008

By the end of February 2008, a considerable improvement is seen in many gardens. Some families are already receiving benefits out of their gardens. It is proved that our project in this village has given energy to most families to grow some vegetable and to get benefits.

Bellow is a table of the current status and progress of our project.

It is already 10 weeks that we started this project. After 8 weeks, people had the opportunity to get the fruits out of this project. The families who had already grown some vegetable were improved to a better standard and their harvests were increased in reasonable amounts.

Those who started with us are also having benefits by now. It is the most important for TCR.

These families are extremely happy and they have never thought that they could grow some vegetable in their own garden in a small bag. It was a big surprise to many families.

By seen this, most of the other families have motivated and they are also working hard to grow vegetables.

TCR Supervisor Miss. Chandani inspecting the harvest. Both are happy.

Following are some of the families, who started to grow with support of TCR and getting their harvest for the first time.


Miss. Rupa at her tomato garden.	Miss. Wimala at her new Radish bed.

Rupa also has Curry chilies.	Miss Nayana has good Okra plants.

Miss. Rashini’s garden.	Miss. Nandawathi’s Okra plant.

By now TCR has implemented following types of vegetables in this village.

· Tomato

· Beans

· Radish

· Brinjal(Aubergine or Eggplant)