Dear donors and project friends,

Project “Provide Vegetable Gardens for Families in Brazil” continues its activities, and since last update report, this project made possible many things to happen here in our communities. We continue to search for possible recipients for new vegetable gardens donations, but this is not an easy task. Our first recipient continues his work and sells his production of different vegetables every Sunday at the local market. Mr. Helcione works as a mason most of his time but I am sure the income he gets from his garden helps a lot at the end of the month. With the end of the winter and with milder temperatures we will supply baby fishes for his water reservoir. He now has the means to feed these fish. We are supplying a truck load of cattle manure to his garden in a week or two. But, as I said, for many reasons it is not easy to locate and find new recipients for vegetable gardens donations. We even placed ads at the local newspaper and posters at the local market, without any result. As most of possible recipients are not ready to start an organic vegetable garden exploitation, we decided that the first thing to do was to improve the knowledge or in most cases introduce Organic Farming to them. Luckily there is a big organic producer in a neighboring town that regularly gives courses on organic agriculture and so in a course he gave in May we could offer 10 seats for possible recipients. His next training will be in September we will offer another 10 places. Please see the pictures of this course at the project page. As you know, this project runs together with GG project “Trees and Education Protect Rainforest in Brazil”, that among other things, takes students for “a Day in the Forest” Ecological Trekking to the Concordia Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary. Please find at the project page a link to this other project page. Most of these schools have vegetable gardens to provide the kitchen. But, believe it or not, these Municipal Schools gardens receive very little or no assistance at all from the Municipality. We saw that they needed help and we are trying to help, improving the vegetable gardens of these Municipal schools of Valença County. We are attending two schools and after winter holidays another two will receive our assistance and help. The two gardeners were students of the Organic Farming training course. For one of the schools we are providing a new watering system. Please see attached pictures of these two schools. As it has not being easy to find new recipients, we are working to enhance the production of sprouts of vegetables that are supplied to producers, helping one of them to make a new and much better production center. We are also studying the possibility of supplying a plastic water reservoir to another producer, all members of the local Organic Producers Association. The work continues, the project is better known today and some people are beginning to make contact with us looking for help or partnerships. I am sure that in the next report we will have many more achievements to show you. SALVEASERRA counts with your support to be able to develop these actions in a so needed and poor environment. Thank you all for your help and donations that make all this possible. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions, ideas or suggestions. Thank you again for this support, Roberto.

Pictures:

• Training of a school gardener. (JPG)
• The Organic Farming Course. (JPG)
• Students and the planting trays (JPG)