Economy question (cheap raw food for HIV orphans in Kenya)

[Guest guest]

Hello Dale,

 

I think the post you referred to is the one I'll paste below, in

which Erica recommended that folks on a budget grow sunflower greens

and eat wild edibles.

 

I am intrigued by the broader implication of your question, since it

involves addressing the nutritional needs and food security of people

in developing countries. I am a former Peace Corps Volunteer; I've

worked for years in developing countries, including in Africa. I'm

now working on development in Afghanistan.

 

Some thoughts / considerations / questions:

 

- Have you considered starting a community garden with the group?

The kids could learn about organic gardening, nutrition, teamwork and

responsibility... all while providing the labor for the garden. If

you don't have land readily available, you might want to consider

identifying unused land nearby, and proposing some type of " win-win "

deal to whomever owns that land.

 

- Sunflower greens and other types of sprouts seem like an immediate

solution, in that you could harvest within days of starting.

 

- Planting fruit trees would provide benefits, longer term. Some,

like bananas and papayas, yield fruit within a year or so. Others,

such as mango and avocado, are larger and take 5 years or so to begin

bearing fruit. You could look into intercropping the fruit trees

with the vegetable garden. These are also opportunities to teach the

children valuable lessons about long-term planning - especially

important in places like Kenya, where this practice is not pervasive,

and a culture of fatalism persists among many.

 

- If for whatever reason you are not able to grow your own food, you

might want to see if the orphans could barter, exchanging work for

healthy, raw food. You might be able to work out such a deal with

anyone along the food supply chain: producers, processors,

wholesalers, retailers, etc.

 

- On a different note, if you also work with (or partner with

organization that do work with) people who are HIV positive, you may

want to explore optimizing their diets (and lifestyles) along the

lines described above. I would suspect that increasing the

nutritional content of food via a living foods diet would prove

invaluable to these people's ability to live with HIV, possibly

extending their life expectancy. Adopting the nutrition strategy

described above would also address the issue of marginalization of

these vulnerable populations, providing reintegration options and

reducing their dependency on public / private assistance. I would

guess that long-time HIV survivors could turn out to be walking,

talking success stories; that is, it might be a win-win for them to

engage with their communities to spread essential messages about

HIV/AIDS (how to avoid getting it) and optimal nutrition (how to get

it!).

 

Anyhow, thanks for the work that you do, and by all means, please

share more of your work with us! Taking the raw foods message to the

developing world has enormous potential to benefit people, and the

environment, everywhere.

 

I'm hoping that others here share their thoughts and suggestions,

since I'm sure that my own thoughts only scratch the surface.

 

Marc

 

> As I can no longer afford to buy food - any kind of food Thanks to

the criminals in DC - I am forced to unsub from your group.

> Thanks for the opportunity to learn.

> Kat

 

Hey! Ann Wigmore did it on pennies a day! Forget the fancy stuff,

sprout in your kitchen! Grow your own Sunflower Greens. Soooooo cheap,

just more time-consuming, so it's not exactly " in-fashion " . And there

is always WILD EDIBLES. But, it will always be here for you. It should

never be a stress. And you will forever have the knowledge, which is

power. Be well, Erica

 

 

 

rawfood , " Dale Bolton " <dalebolton wrote:

>

> In a resent post someone mentioned that they didn't have enough

money to

> make this raw lifestyle work and someone mentioned that Ann

Whitmore did

> some pioneer work in this area living on very little. We are

working in

> Kenya with Aids orphans and wanted to follow up on what she did. I

deleted

> the posting just as I was reading the last bit. Any other ideas

would be

> great - at present we are feeding the kids for 17cents a day (there

are so

> many kids) but the nutritional value is questionable.

>

>

>

> Dale

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Thanks for the interest. We have some very interesting long term projects

that use organic farming. The problem I am addressing is more short term. An

example may be finding a family looking after 20 kids. How do we multiply

nutrients short term. We use sprouted lentils which are great but need more

ideas to help them transition till gardening can kick in.

 

 

 

The group we work with is called Hope For The Nations.

www.hopeforthenations.com <http://www.hopeforthenations.com/>

 

 

 

 

 

Dale

 

 

 

_____

 

rawfood [rawfood ] On Behalf Of

marcospcv

Sunday, October 14, 2007 12:40 AM

rawfood

[Raw Food] Re: Economy question (cheap raw food for HIV orphans in

Kenya)

 

 

 

Hello Dale,

 

I think the post you referred to is the one I'll paste below, in

which Erica recommended that folks on a budget grow sunflower greens

and eat wild edibles.

 

I am intrigued by the broader implication of your question, since it

involves addressing the nutritional needs and food security of people

in developing countries. I am a former Peace Corps Volunteer; I've

worked for years in developing countries, including in Africa. I'm

now working on development in Afghanistan.

 

Some thoughts / considerations / questions:

 

- Have you considered starting a community garden with the group?

The kids could learn about organic gardening, nutrition, teamwork and

responsibility... all while providing the labor for the garden. If

you don't have land readily available, you might want to consider

identifying unused land nearby, and proposing some type of " win-win "

deal to whomever owns that land.

 

- Sunflower greens and other types of sprouts seem like an immediate

solution, in that you could harvest within days of starting.

 

- Planting fruit trees would provide benefits, longer term. Some,

like bananas and papayas, yield fruit within a year or so. Others,

such as mango and avocado, are larger and take 5 years or so to begin

bearing fruit. You could look into intercropping the fruit trees

with the vegetable garden. These are also opportunities to teach the

children valuable lessons about long-term planning - especially

important in places like Kenya, where this practice is not pervasive,

and a culture of fatalism persists among many.

 

- If for whatever reason you are not able to grow your own food, you

might want to see if the orphans could barter, exchanging work for

healthy, raw food. You might be able to work out such a deal with

anyone along the food supply chain: producers, processors,

wholesalers, retailers, etc.

 

- On a different note, if you also work with (or partner with

organization that do work with) people who are HIV positive, you may

want to explore optimizing their diets (and lifestyles) along the

lines described above. I would suspect that increasing the

nutritional content of food via a living foods diet would prove

invaluable to these people's ability to live with HIV, possibly

extending their life expectancy. Adopting the nutrition strategy

described above would also address the issue of marginalization of

these vulnerable populations, providing reintegration options and

reducing their dependency on public / private assistance. I would

guess that long-time HIV survivors could turn out to be walking,

talking success stories; that is, it might be a win-win for them to

engage with their communities to spread essential messages about

HIV/AIDS (how to avoid getting it) and optimal nutrition (how to get

it!).

 

Anyhow, thanks for the work that you do, and by all means, please

share more of your work with us! Taking the raw foods message to the

developing world has enormous potential to benefit people, and the

environment, everywhere.

 

I'm hoping that others here share their thoughts and suggestions,

since I'm sure that my own thoughts only scratch the surface.

 

Marc

 

> As I can no longer afford to buy food - any kind of food Thanks to

the criminals in DC - I am forced to unsub from your group.

> Thanks for the opportunity to learn.

> Kat

 

Hey! Ann Wigmore did it on pennies a day! Forget the fancy stuff,

sprout in your kitchen! Grow your own Sunflower Greens. Soooooo cheap,

just more time-consuming, so it's not exactly " in-fashion " . And there

is always WILD EDIBLES. But, it will always be here for you. It should

never be a stress. And you will forever have the knowledge, which is

power. Be well, Erica

 

rawfood@ <rawfood%40> .com, " Dale

Bolton " <dalebolton wrote:

>

> In a resent post someone mentioned that they didn't have enough

money to

> make this raw lifestyle work and someone mentioned that Ann

Whitmore did

> some pioneer work in this area living on very little. We are

working in

> Kenya with Aids orphans and wanted to follow up on what she did. I

deleted

> the posting just as I was reading the last bit. Any other ideas

would be

> great - at present we are feeding the kids for 17cents a day (there

are so

> many kids) but the nutritional value is questionable.

>

>

>

> Dale

>

>

>

>