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Juarez Community Garden Project
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 Juarez Community Garden Project

Center for the Promotion of Peace

Albuquerque, New Mexico

 

The Juarez Community Garden project is located at Centro Santa Catalina (named for Catherine of Sienna), a women's center in Juarez Mexico. This women's center serves about 400 women and children a week.  The people that it serves live in poverty unlike anything we would ever see here in the US.  Not only do these families have to survive on very low wages (often at US maquiladoras) but they live in squatter style homes they built on top of the former Juarez city dump. The land that they live on is toxic and it would be unthinkable to grow food on this land.

 

The micro intensive gardens, designed and manufactured by Veggiegrower Gardens of New Mexico, can be placed on any surface and since they are closed units they can be filled with quality soil and can be used to grow organic produce.  These micro intensive gardens have been used with great success in Juarez for the past 6 years at individual families’ homes in the same area of toxic land.

 

This new community garden project is unique in three ways.

  • The gardens are being placed together at the women's center instead of at individual families' homes with the knowledge that by gardening together women and their families will share responsibility, labor, and food. 
  • It is hoped that in the course of the next year there will be 10 8' x 4' micro intensive gardens at the women's center and that these gardens will not only provide fresh, organic produce for the 10 founding families but will also provide produce that they can sell to gain some income for their families.
  • There are people with experience using the micro intensive gardens in Juarez who are willing to act as teachers and mentors for people new to micro intensive gardening and this fact should make the learning process go very quickly.

 

The Center for the Promotion of Peace (CPOP) is a 501c3 nonprofit based in Albuquerque and is the organization that is sponsoring the Juarez garden project. Donations can be sent to CPOP @ 3208 Silver Ave SE, Albuquerque NM 87106.

 

Chuck O'Herron-Alex

505 217-5110