Fertile Ground: East/West Sustainability Network

ORGANIC FARMING IN ASSAM

SPRAYING PESTICIDES ON TEA

NOW PEOPLE ARE STARTING TO USE PESTICIDES ON THEIR VEGETABLES!

Fertile Ground helped set up a Resource Centre and Classroom in Assam

A joint project of Rotary Clubs in Canada and Assam, and Fertile Ground - with support from Indian Oil

Corporation

Marcia Allardice, from Sunrise Strathcona Rotary Club in 2007

Demonstrating how to make compost

Last year, we started the“Kids to Kids” Project

4 Kidsfrom the Comox Valley

E

Why did we start this project?

WHY DID WE START THIS PROJECT?

WHY do the kids there need our help?The people in the villages don’t have a lot of money to build schools

Some of the schools don’t have desks or blackboards, and the kids’ families can’t afford to buy school supplies

Do they have enough food to eat?

J

Most families in the villages can grow enough food to feed their families, but

they don’t have extra money for school.

M

How did we raise money?

HERE’S HOW THE MONEY HELPED KIDS IN ASSAM

This is Pompy….

Last year, she visited a village a long way from the resource centre, and learned about the people who were living there.

They used to live in villages on the shores of the Brahmaputra River but they had move to the Sadiya area because floods destroyed their homes and their land

Burma

SADIYAINDIA

•most eastern corner of Assam •foothills of the Himalayan mountains•no road access

Number of villages: - 28Number of families:- 1493

Many of the dads have to work a long way from home to make money for their families.

The soil is really sandy and they don’t have enough water to water their gardens

The teacher told us their school needs• school supplies• soccer ball• playground equipment

J

a new project this year….

making Community Gardens at village schools– a place where children and families living in Sadiya can learn

how to improve the sandy soil and grow healthy food

GARDEN

We’ll be working with people from 5 small villages to build community gardens next to the local elementary schools. People of all ages, including the kids, will work with a group of volunteers from Canada to make these gardens

PLAYGROUND

CLASSROOM SUPPLIES

$5,000

PROJECT GOALS Teach people how to

– take care of the soil– grow vegetables organicallyso they have healthy food to feed their families

Let people know that pesticides can make people sick and harm the environment

Help some of the families in the village earn money by growing and selling vegetables

Make sure families have the information they need so they don’t take out loans that they can’t manage

WHAT THINGS WILL FERTILE GROUND DO TO MAKE THIS

PROJECT WORK?

?

Pompy will teach people

- how to improve their soil

- how to stop insect pests from damaging their crops without spraying them with pesticides.

1

Red Ant

Take a clay pot and put some holes in the side of it

Put fresh or tinned fish into the pot

Make a 6” deep hole in the ground in the area where the ants have been eating the roots of the plants. Put the container in the soil, and cover the top with a lid.

In only 24 hours, the ants will have entered the pot through the holes in the side and have eaten most of the fish! There will be lots of tiny ants in the pot. Carefully remove the pot from the ground and destroy the ants by burning them or drowning them in water.

The teacher and parents can use vegetables from the garden to make healthy school lunches for the kids.

2

We’ll continue raising money for more school supplies, books, posters and

things that make learning FUN.

3

Build sanitary latrines

(outhouses)at each school

4

But what about the playground at the school that the teacher asked us to help them build?

?

We can start by using local materials like bamboo

and also recycled materials like rubber tires

5

Because of all the rain Assam has, bamboo and wood won’t last very long, so we are also hoping we can raise money for some metal swing sets and teeter-totters

• a teeter cost will cost about $95• a metal swing set will cost about $125

Training in villages near the garden

Thank you for all the different ways you’re

supporting Fertile Ground’s work in Assam!