10,000 Garden Towers in Kenya

There is a well-known saying in the humanitarian world.

“If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.” - Origin unknown

I've heard it at least 1000 times over the past 8 years in conversations with people about the focus of 100 Humanitarians International.

This week in Kenya, we reached a huge milestone as the reports came in from our communities that we have built 10,340 garden towers since we launched this program in 2019!

To put that into perspective, that is over 50,000 people who have been taught how to grow a garden tower, with each family having an average of 5 people (some have more!)

With 50 million people in Kenya we have reached .1%. That might seem statistically insignificant, but it's measurable on a calculator.

On May 20, 2019 we were invited into Brian Paul's office at The USANA Foundation to talk about the garden towers. At that time, we had built around 20 of them in Kenya, but we had seen the benefits and impact. He was a bit skeptical, but after several months of pestering him, he asked me to write a proposal to help 200 families.

We went all in, and launched the program in Bomet County. The focus was 2 garden towers per family, fencing, and a water storage tank. We wanted to set them up for success.

About 30 families in, the pandemic hit, and for 13 weeks Kenya was shut down for international travel. During that time, we rallied our friends in the US and fundraised to support 150 widows and children with a meal of rice and beans. We kept track of all of their names, so that we could build garden towers with them later.

Our garden tower boys got started again as soon as possible, and completed the 200 families in one year. It was a miracle. Every family was tracked, and the results were amazing. One garden tower could feed a family of five 3-8 meals per week ongoing.

Brian came with us to Kenya to see for himself the impact, and our partnership was solidified. Since then, our primary funding for the 10,000 garden towers has come from The USANA Foundation and funds raised at The Giving Tuesday Gala.

Brian has taken the garden towers to 14 more countries, and this week while we were celebrating in Kenya, he was in Mexico building garden towers with families.

We believe, and boldly state, that teaching families in impoverished areas how to grow their own food with garden towers is the beginning of the end to global hunger. It is simple, scalable, uses no special tools, 30% less water than traditional in-ground gardening, and they can be grown anywhere.

And now, we need your help. Our teams in Kenya could build 10,000 more garden towers this year, reach 50,000 more people, and speed up the fight against hunger. We have communities who are waiting and hoping to get the garden towers.

To produce a garden tower is $20, which covers the cost of materials, and pays the sewing and gardening teams (yep - this program also provides jobs!)

If @everyone reading this donates $20/month , what took us four years would take us one year. Or, if you are interested in making a bigger impact and becoming a substantial donor to this project, I would love to talk with you.

Sincerely,

Heidi Totten

Founder and Executive Director

100 Humanitarians International

DONATE HERE