HIV Support Group Garden

Last week the HIV support group we work with invited us to see their garden project. The garden provides nutritional supplements to their diet as well as a source of income. While they have some problems to work out, we were impressed with their initiative to help themselves live a better life. Considering that is easy for them to become sick, a physical project like this takes a lot of perseverance and determination.


Here's Brian following our hosts to the garden.


Then we had to cross a river. Nothing is ever easy in Malawi, but we didn't mind because it felt good on our feet. We try not to think about what parasites may have invited themselves into our bodies.


Here is the group working in the garden. It is close to the river, so it is easy to water in the dry season. They are still hoping to get more watering cans though because it is a slow process with only one.


Another one of their problems they are facing are insects and not enough fertilizer. Each member has already contributed a small amount for fertilizer, but it is not enough. We are encouraging them to use more eco-friendly methods which would also be cheaper (or free), but we aren't exactly experts on that either. Insects aren't the only thing eating their garden. Goats are a problem, so a fence is also on their wish list.


After visiting the vegetable garden we went to look at the medicinal herb garden. This is the chairman of the support group showing us some kind of plant that I can't remember (and it probably wouldn't matter if I did because it would be a Chichewa name). They have many plants growing that will help treat some of their opportunistic infections that accompany HIV/AIDS. The one main problem with the herb garden is water. It is pretty far from the river or a borehole. We want to try to encourage a watering schedule so the members of the group can rotate the task.


This is a baby Neem tree. I was excited about this because I remembered learning about Neem in India. It seems like it has a million uses.