Seeds for a Future is enabling rural Guatemalans to transform their lives.
Families in rural Guatemala have struggled with malnutrition and food insecurity for many generations, leading to an ongoing cycle of poverty that is hard to escape.
In 2009, Seeds for a Future implemented its unique, comprehensive program to address these issues. Due to the program's success, it continues to flourish throughout Guatemala.
Seeds for a Future doesn’t just provide aid.
Instead, it incorporates a long-term strategy of self-reliance.
The Seeds program trains and empowers its participants to achieve greatly improved nutrition and health outcomes for mothers and children while increasing income opportunities.
In addition to training, Seeds for a Future also provides the starter seedlings and protein animals that will best serve each family's nutritional needs.
The practices used by the program's participants to achieve better health and opportunities become familial and community traditions.
These traditions are passed to future generations, contributing to healthier and more vibrant communities for generations to come.
Seeds for a Future operates with three core elements:
- Countering malnutrition and food insecurity by providing the training, seedlings, and small animals that participating families use to create their own permaculture gardens and protein sources.
- Nutrition and health education for mothers and children with an emphasis on “The First 1,000 Days”.
- Increased income opportunities by participants selling their excess garden and protein production.
Fourteen years of field testing and fine-tuning have paid off, thanks to the hard work of the Seeds staff and financial contributions of all sizes from engaged citizens around the globe.
Our results as of 2023:
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The Program serves 19 communities located in 10 states across Guatemala.
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Over 4,800 Families have graduated from the Program
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38,400+ people have benefited (avg family size = 8.0)
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Thousands of home gardens created and maintained
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Thousands of protein animals raised
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20,000 native fruit, cacao, and timber trees planted and producing
Seeds for a Future Program Locations
The INCAP Research Study of the Seeds for a Future Program
An independent scientific study was conducted from 2014 to 2017 by the internationally-respected Institute for Nutrition in Central America and Panama (INCAP).
Funded by the Nestlé Foundation of Switzerland, INCAP’s research revealed that Seeds for a Future’s strategies and methods produce measurable positive improvements in the health of participating mothers and babies.
Follow-up interviews showed an extraordinary level of sustainability – more than 80% of study participants reported continuing one or more actions they had learned from the Seeds for a Future program.
To find out more about what we’re doing, be sure to view our Program Outline page.
We're Grateful for the Support of:
