By Yolanda Salazar |
La Paz (EFE).- The urban garden “Awichas”, which means grandfather in Aymara, went from being a garbage dump in the middle of the streets of La Paz to becoming an oasis for a group of older adults who with their experience in crops promotes food security and has found a motivation in his life and a way to contribute to their families.
The garden to exchange knowledge
This initiative was born in 2019, after a trip that the Bolivian Petrona Mamani, who is one of the founders of the garden, made to Spain where she learned about the “leisure gardens”, in which several people came together to organically cultivate their food.
Mamani told EFE that this experience motivated her to promote a garden in Bolivia where the elderly could come together and grow a variety of foods for their consumption with the support of producers from EcoTambo, a project of agroecological products, the Swiss NGO E-Changer and the Mayor of La Paz.
The older adults who are part of the “Awicha” community are divided into two groups to take charge of the chores in the garden, such as planting, watering and protecting the crops, making homemade insecticides and ecological fertilizers.
In addition, they exchange their experiences and knowledge hand in hand with cooperators on sustainable and urban agriculture such as E-Changer and EcoTambo.
“Many of the grandparents who participate are aware because when they were younger they planted with their families in the fields,” Audrey Vargas, one of the trainers who is part of E-Changer, told EFE.
Potatoes, broad beans, peas, onions, turnips, radishes, tomatoes, cucumbers have been grown in the garden, among other foods that are later distributed among them to make a community meal known as apthapi or to take home for their families to enjoy. of those ingredients, Vargas said.
“It fills the grandparents a lot to be able to contribute to their families,” he commented.
Experiences
Francisco Villasante, 75, told EFE that he feels very “happy” to be able to bring this food home and affirmed that “he does not waste anything” because he knows that it is organic food that has been grown with his own hands and the of other elders.
Villasante has been in the garden since the beginning and his only request is that “they can have drinking water” to continue with this activity, since they must carry the liquid in drums from their homes or collect the rain to irrigate their food.
Benita Aquino told EFE that she has been growing her food for almost a year, this activity is important in her life, not only because she can bring products for herself, her son, and her grandchildren, but because that place is “a meeting point” with other women with whom he talks, shares and fills him with “happiness”.
La Paz, leader in orchards
The “Awichas” garden is one of the 14 that exist in the municipality of La Paz, which has become a leader in promoting these spaces thanks to a municipal law in force since 2018 for the promotion of urban gardens, Mariela Rivera told EFE. , responsible for urban agriculture at Fundación Alternativas, which promotes food policies in the country.
Rivera pointed out that of the 14 orchards only three are registered, so farmers and organizations that are part of the Municipal Committee for Food Safety presented a proposal called “3,2,1… Let’s cultivate!” to the La Paz Mayor’s Office to “make effective” the legal registration of these spaces and thus promote more municipal orchards.
“The idea is that many more residents are encouraged to adopt municipal spaces that are abandoned to avoid encroachment, to avoid dumps and that they become risk areas,” Rivera emphasized.
To do this, he commented that people who want to promote an urban garden in a municipal space must follow the steps for registration and they will be given a one-year permit to start planting their food.
“Urban agriculture brings benefits such as the community, it helps to increase green spaces, it reconnects you with Mother Earth and it helps with food security,” Rivera stressed.
He added that urban gardens are one of the most effective “mechanisms” to work on “food security” and thus “guarantee the right to food” of people.