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| Potatoes, greens and roselle intercropping at Shwe Tar Zin school |
The UPLift Garden program, supported by Thai Children's Trust, is designed to make a lot out of a little--in other words, using a small amount of land and limited resources to yield large amounts of healthy, nutritious vegetables for migrant students living in and around Mae Sot. After running two successful pilots last dry season, we are back to talking to and collaborating with motivated schools.
Shwe Tar Zin, our first expansion school, consists mostly of Arakanese staff and students. Arakan State is on the western side of Burma, on the border with Bangladesh. Most of these families came to Thailand after Cyclone Nargis wreaked havoc on the Burmese coastline in 2008.
A lesson learned from our pilot projects was that ownership and creativity actually increase when only a small amount of land is used. In this case, Shwe Tar Zin's staff and principal are doing a great job of fitting in a diverse and nutritious array of vegetables--including red potatoes from Arakan State!
Check out the pictures below to see the difference that one month makes. By the end of January this garden will be in full bloom!
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| Mid-November, to... |
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| ...Mid-December! |
