Looking forward to hearing more. And seeing the non-U.S. folk on your list, I suspect that you've got something happening in a non-U.S. place. (However, if you're looking for a U.S. project you're welcome to visit my backyard.)

We're Gardeners of Hope, Luke.

Your backyard may require something more. ;)

Love this project. Looking forward to following it as it unfolds.

Thanks Mark!

Looking forward to you asking the tough questions : )

Of course I'll be finding someone else to answer :D

What a terrific win-win of a project. I have a question, more for another friend of mine in Africa that sent me a proposal for a fruit growing farm for their community. My guess is that their community would work with a greenhouse like you are building.

They live in Kenya and I was amazed at their business plan, where over 3/4 of the budget was for chemicals and pesticides (an amount that excallated each year, while the costs for planting goes down to almost nothing). I asked him if there were any more organic choices that they could consider so they didn't have escallating costs each year. He asked if we knew anyone who would work with him on this issue.

David, what if??? We work to get your current proposal funded and at the same time, look into how we might work to invest in sustainable land management practices as well? This might even be something (especially if you know the who, what and how much) I could include in our Emerging Futures Network team proposal.

I also think this is a great project. Something that should have some real meaningful impact on the communities.

Two quick comments:

Creating five greenhouses sounds like too many to me. Just a gut feeling. Are you sure that it can be done?

On your workspace you list the organization to be funded as SOLID. I think that you should list your 501c3 fiscal agent there.

Luke said:

I also think this is a great project. Something that should have some real meaningful impact on the communities.

Two quick comments:

Creating five greenhouses sounds like too many to me. Just a gut feeling. Are you sure that it can be done?

On your workspace you list the organization to be funded as SOLID. I think that you should list your 501c3 fiscal agent there.

Luke,

I take your point but SOLID is the organization accountable to O.net for the project. We make note of our fiscal agent in the cheque payable section - with the IHC website listed in our external links.

As for five greenhouses being too many ... @ $500.00 each we'd be happy to accept additional consideration. :) But our vision is to have a greenhouse and nursery in each of the 5 communities.

Luke, Thank you for your comments and keep checking back with us Gardeners!

The proposal to build greenhouses in each community in the Gardens of Hope network is based on our having already built a greenhouse for Molapo High School. It was accomplished for $500 and took less than one day.

The amount of community support for SOLID's projects in Lesotho has been overwhelming, and we expect that, just as we had for our tree nursery building workshops, we will have more volunteers show up to build the greenhouses than we know what to do with. It means there is usually a great choir accompanying the builders! In Africa, music is the fuel for life.

The communities are all in the same district, but since this country relies on foot and horse transport more than on cars, even groups 20 miles distant from one another are going to be producing and selling greenhouse produce to different markets.

Thanks for the clarification, Peter & Andrea. (And welcome to o.net, Andrea!)

As far as the whole fiscal agent/accountability issue, Peter, I think that the safe thing would be to get Thomas's or Susan's opinion on it. From a purely technical perspective, your fiscal agent would have all the accountability. They get the cheque and would have to make sure that you do your work. Omidyar Network would just be checking up on them. But I could be wrong.

Earlier today Mark and Meron had a chat using the Gabbly applet in the Gardeners of Hope proposal. With Mark's permission ... here is the question asked and Meron's reply:

Mark Grimes: [...] Assuming the best, what's the timeline once this gets funded?

Meron: [...] pretty quick! We have it all in place in Lesotho so it's just a matter of getting the $$ to them

Mark Grimes: excellent

Meron: and they can get to building the Greenhouses and such

I thought it was a good question and suited for this discussion thread.

Thanks Mark!

You bet.

This one has some great visual potential. Is there any chance that at some stage we might get to see some pictures of one of the build outs/community greenhouses?

Mos Def ...

Mark said:

You bet.

This one has some great visual potential. Is there any chance that at some stage we might get to see some pictures of one of the build outs/community greenhouses?

Luke said:

... As far as the whole fiscal agent/accountability issue, Peter, I think that the safe thing would be to get Thomas's or Susan's opinion on it. From a purely technical perspective, your fiscal agent would have all the accountability. They get the cheque and would have to make sure that you do your work. Omidyar Network would just be checking up on them. But I could be wrong.

Luke, to your point ...

I think you're right: IHC has the regulatory onus for fiscal accountability.

It's my belief that within the context of O.net, SOLID shares that onus and has a further, broader, accountability - call it reputational accountability. And SOLID is very much up for the task. :)

I guess the question is whether it's regulatory or practical accountability that ON is looking for. And, yes, SOLID is solid.

>>And, yes, SOLID is solid.<<

Theme from SHAFT playing in my head.

Regarding pictures and video of the greenhouses... we have Peace Corps friends in each of the 5 projects who are all equipped with at least digital still cameras. We'll make a point of posting images from the workshops and the finished structures. As my partner, Gary McNutt (who founded SOLID in 2001) and I are returning to Lesotho in November, you can count on lots more media coming from these projects. One of our long term goals is to share our media skills (me - illustration, web and graphic design, he - film and multimedia)with the groups in Gardens of Hope to encourage them to create media around HIV/AIDS and their creative responses to the pandemic; posters, educational materials, t-shirts, films, oral histories, blogs. The experience of living in sub-Saharan Africa right now is so poorly expressed by the western media; all doom and gloom, so little in the way of hope. Media tools, in the hands of grassroots Africans, will tell us stories and offer us a perspective on Africa that we have yet to taste. Yebo!

LOL! You guys are too cute ; )

Welcome to the boards Andrea! Did you figure out how to edit the workspace yet?

OK, neophyte here; what is LOL????

LOL = laugh/ing out loud

Another individual introduced to the secrets of the internet!

~ Mark said: ~

You bet.

This one has some great visual potential. Is there any chance that at some stage we might get to see some pictures of one of the build outs/community greenhouses?

If you are eager for pictures, Mark, have you clicked through the individual project links? They will take you to the corresponding project web pages on the SOLID site. There are picutres (and video) there.

That should satify you till we dig up some more.

Oh yeah, I've seen all the old stuff, I'm talking about what new funds can create. Soon enough.

I love this project, and it will get my support.

I love trees.

:))

Julie Caldwell wrote:

What a terrific win-win of a project. I have a question, more for another friend of mine in Africa that sent me a proposal for a fruit growing farm for their community. My guess is that their community would work with a greenhouse like you are building.

They live in Kenya and I was amazed at their business plan, where over 3/4 of the budget was for chemicals and pesticides

Thanks for your welcome support, Julie!

I think that's a good point about farming methods. As you will have read, the project is inspired by and committed to sustainable methods and ethical values. Concern about the global implications of land use in evident in the project's Description of Value or Benefit:

• To produce trees for community forests to prevent erosion of fragile mountain soils andretain water.. Planting trees is an important step in re-claiming land that is being lost to erosion in Lesotho
• To provide firewood for cooking and heating homes to communities who must purchase wood out of their very limited cash resources.
• To provide oxygen, animal habitat, building materials, shade, and beauty to the planet. Trees are a legacy we leave for our children and the earth.
• To allow schools and community based organizations to grow seedlings for replanting in their own gardens, thus cutting down the capital costs of farming.
• To produce a wide variety of tree, herb, fruit, and vegetable plants thereby preserving biodiversity and improving the health of the soil and the population.
• To produce medicinal herbs from a variety of global bio-regions that are effective in the treatment of local diseases, particularly the opportunistic infections caused by HIV/AIDS.
• To incorporate greater emphasis on fruit and vegetables into the local diet, particularly for people affected by HIV/AIDS. Immunity is boosted by a well-balanced diet, and for those on anti-retroviral treatment a healthy diet is essential to the proper functioning of the medication.

Nevertheless, I think your concern about methods of cultivation is valid and should be checked out. Sometimes, though, progress in the developing world cannot happen with immediate simultaneously high standards of ethical practice in every aspect of a project. That doesn't even happen in the developed world where we have much less excuse!

Anyway, Peter, Andrea and Meron, any information about the farming methods used and possible steps that might be taken towards organic methods, if these are not already being adopted?

A couple of early links that I've found from UK sources.

The first is a really heartening competition - would Gulf Islands Secondary School (GISS) or Molapo High School, Pitseng High School or Linotsing Community School be interested in entering?

The second comes from University of Essex's Centre for Environment and Society, which has put information online taken from SAFE-World Research's 47 Portraits of Sustainable Agriculture Projects and Initiatives (from Pretty and Hine, 2001). This includes an interesting system practiced in Lesotho:

The Machobane Farming System is an example of a fundamentally redesigned system yielding multi-functional benefits. Lesotho is severely affected by erosion and land degradation. During the last twenty years, arable land fell 14 to 9% of the country’s total area, and crop yields are now about half the 1970s level. Dr. J.J.Machobane, a Mosotho agronomist, first conceived his system over 40 years ago, experimenting on his own land for 13 years before attempting to launch it amongst fellow farmers. Unlike most extension methods, the Machobane approach starts with the basic behavioural requirements for adopting its technical message:

• self-reliance - farmers must be convinced that they can achieve food security without external assistance;
• appreciation of the resource base - farmers must be ready to work hard, and be convinced that they can improve crop production by fully exploiting their resource base;
• learning and teaching by doing - farmers must be trained on their own fields and farmer trainers must be ready to do work along with them;
• spontaneous technology spreading - farmers learn from other farmers, and Machobane farmers have the duty to help their neighbours.

In Lesotho mountain areas, most crops are grown on terraced land, but poor soil structure, inadequate soil fertility management and erratic rainfall, mean that land productivity is low and variable. According to Machobane, these constraints can be overcome by rational exploitation of the resource base and minimising the need for purchased inputs. The technical elements include intercropping, localised placement of ash (from household waste) and manure, weeding, introduction of potato as a cash crop, preservation of natural enemies, row-rotations, and legumes with cereals.

Farmers adopting the MFS indicate three advantages of the system: (i) higher land productivity (0.4 ha per family needed for food security compared with the more normal 1.2 ha); (ii) large cash income obtained by planting potato; and (iii) better resistance to drought: their fields are green compared to non-Machobane fields during drought. In addition, MFS will substantially reduce farm income fluctuations through the combination of lowering yield fluctuations of individual crops, spreading risk of fluctuations in yields and prices by planting a larger range of crops and decreased reliance on imported inputs (fertilizers and pesticides). Some 2000 farmers are now practising this system.

Source: Alberta Mascaretti

Is any of this of relevance to the Gardeners of Hope project?

[edited for lay-out]