Gardens for Health International

Gardens for Health International (GHI) is an American 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that seeks to provide sustainable agricultural solutions to the problem of chronic childhood malnutrition. The organization partners with rural health centers in the Gasabo and Musanze districts of Rwanda to equip families facing malnutrition with seeds, livestock, and know-how, aiming to shift the paradigm of food aid dependency to one of prevention and self-sufficiency.

http://www.gardensforhealth.org/

History

GHI was founded in 2007 by then college students Emma Clippinger, Emily Morell Balkin, and Julie Carney, with the goal of providing lasting agricultural solutions to pressing public health problems in Rwanda.^[1][2] Clippinger and Morell met in the summer of 2006 while interning in Rwanda with the Clinton Foundation’s HIV/AIDS initiative. They became interested in identifying programs that used agriculture as a means to improve nutrition and health rather than solely as a means to increase income.

Carney joined the founding team in 2007 and became GHI’s first country director in 2008, when she launched GHI’s pilot program.^[3] In response to Rwanda’s 44% childhood malnutrition rate,^[4] GHI’s programming evolved to focus on this particular public health challenge. Under Carney, GHI launched its core effort in August 2010, in the form of a health center program. Through this program, GHI partners with rural health centers with the aim of bringing lasting agricultural solutions to families in need at the point of care.

Carney approached the design and implementation of this health center program through the lens of community-led development. The GHI curriculum and training methodology was created in partnership with mothers that the organization serves, and the organization's agriculture team works cross-culturally to continue designing interventions.

Approach

GHI works at the nexus of health and agriculture, aiming to address the root causes of malnutrition and investing in the productivity of the families served. The program targets the caregivers of children under five who are suffering from malnutrition. In nearly every case, these caregivers are women.

When a child comes into one of GHI's partner health centers and is diagnosed with malnutrition, two things happen: the child receives a prescription for emergency food aid, and their caregiver receives a “prescription” for the GHI program. GHI works with each family in the program to plant a home garden, and trained field staff visit each family in their home, where they help design a garden that meets the respective family’s specific needs, placing particular importance on increasing the dietary diversity of the household. GHI's home garden design focuses on providing families with the resources that will best empower them to achieve lasting food security. GHI thus provides inputs and promotes gardening practices that are low-risk and self-replicable.

In addition to targeted agricultural assistance, every family in GHI's program participates in a fourteen-week health and nutrition training course. Recognizing the complex nature of the problem of malnutrition, these classes also broach often taboo topics such as family planning and mental illness. GHI simultaneously trains health center leadership and community health workers in the prevention, identification, and treatment of malnutrition.

Partners

GHI works closely with the government of Rwanda, working within the rural health center system, and has been identified as a key partner in a national plan to eliminate malnutrition. Currently, GHI works with four health centers in |Rwanda's Gasabo district: Gikomero, Rubungo, Nyaconga, and Kayanga. In the Musanze district, it works with four health centers: Murandi, Gasiza, Shingiro, and Kinigi. GHI provides nutrition workshops to workers at these health centers through the ACCESS project and partners with the Segal Family Foundation to offer training to clinical partners throughout these regions.^[5]

The organization also works with the European Union and UNICEF ^[6] to advocate for policies and programs that promote sustainable, nutrition-based agricultural practices as well as the integration of holistic, peer-based education into the prevention and treatment of malnutrition. GHI presented at the Rwandan Ministry of Health's 2011 and 2014 National Nutrition Summit, contributed to the National Strategy for the Transformation of Agriculture in 2013 and participated in the 2012 Skoll World Forum and the 2012 Opportunity Collaboration.

Since 2017, GHI has been collaborating with UNHCR and Save the Children. Together, GHI and these international organizations have worked in Mahama Refugee Camp to provide nutrition demos and life-skills sessions. There are plans to apply these trainings training to Kigeme Refugee Camp. The goal in these partnerships is to improve the health of children and decrease malnutrition.

GHI has also developed a partnership with Community Health Workers' community growth monitoring campaigns. With this partnership, GHI has weighed and measured 16,184 to date.

Since 2017 World Food Programme is working with GHI to implement a School Training Guide. These programs train "head teachers" in creating a school garden, with the hope that surrounding communities will benefit from the skills students and teachers learn in these classes.

GHI has also partnered with a Kate Spade factory that employs almost exclusively women in the Masoro District of Kigali. GHI implemented a temporary program called "Life Skills Friday," which women who work at the factory have continued. The women end work early on Fridays to meet and collaborate ways of improving the health and diet of their children.

Seed Prescription Program

At GHI's 20 Partner Health Centers, doctors can prescribe seeds as treatment for malnutrition. Three times a year, GHI visits its Health Center Partners to work with diagnosed patients' caregivers in creating a bio-diverse home garden. There are also health trainings designed to address complex reasons for lacking a wholesome diet. Two trained "Field Educators" reach 40 families per season. These trainings not only provide families with complete "seed packages," but also knowledge of how to take care of a garden and why eating healthy is important.

Evidence of Impact

GHI enrolled 596 caregivers and 625 children. The organization has established 582 home gardens.

The following are statistics from August - December of 2017. GHI measures growth by taking a baseline survey before trainings and then distributing exit surveys post trainings.

Knowledge Gains: Average health and agriculture knowledge assessment scores increased from 27% at baseline to 78% at graduation. Ability of caregivers to identify the components of a balanced meal rose from 26% at baseline to 94% at graduation.

Behavior Change: Children meeting minimum dietary diversity increased from 36% at baseline to 65% at graduation. Children consuming iron or vitamin A rich vegetables increased to 90% Average vegetable varieties grown increased from 1.8 at baseline to 7.6 at graduation. 582 home gardens were established.

Health Outcomes: After just 14 weeks, 51% of children were on an improved growth trajectory After 2 years, 60% of children enrolled during the 2016A season remained on a positive growth trajectory.

Accolades

• Forbes 30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneurs ^[7]
• East Africa Acumen Fellowship ^[8]
• Echoing Green Fellowship ^[9][10]
• JP Morgan Good Venture Undergraduate Competition ^[11]
• Clinton Global Initiative University Outstanding Commitment Award ^[12]
• Staples Youth Social Entrepreneur Competition
• Ashoka East Africa Fellowship
• Worldwatch Institute Innovation of the Month
• Bluhm/Helfand Social Innovation Fellowship ^[13]
• Dell Social Innovation Challenge ^[14]

External links

• Gardens for Health International
• "Into Africa"
• "What if Doctors Could Prescribe Seeds?"
• "Planting Maize, Promoting Health"

References