At times we have not had anything to eat... because we can't go out.
And it's difficult to find it.
I've been locked down by myself.
The pandemic and the quarantine affected me and us
in a very drastic manner,
concerning mobility, work, food,
in that we have seen that the community
already had a poor economy before this
and now that economy is suffering a lot.
Many people here work in the fields,
and today due to the restrictions, due to the lockdown,
they can't go out, they can't produce, and so they are starving at home.
So many times, they go out, even at the risk of getting ill
for the sake of getting something to eat, some food for their children.
The first initiative began in the neighborhood Alpachaca,
which is the toughest neighborhood of Ibarra,
also the poorest neighborhood.
And is a neighborhood where we have worked for many years
with the group Calle Paz y Respeto,
the legal entity of the gang group called the Bloods.
They have since evolved to take on social service projects
the transformation has been quite complete
and is recognized as one of the most
helpful entities in the neighborhood.
The Calle Paz y Respeto live there, and they were able to guide us
to the people who were most vulnerable, most in need,
who were beginning to completely run out of food.
We tried to reach the families...
with staples such as rice, oil, sugar,
and also vegetables such as avocado, broccoli, lettuce,
and a variety of fruits such as apples, tangerines.
All these products
so that the family can fill their tummies,
and their hearts more than anything.
This activity has brought us together, united us for the common good.
We are human beings before everything else,
and sometimes this pandemic separates us,
makes us think only as individuals
when it should be the other way around.
We should get united, and try to help each other,
which would be the best way to face this pandemic.
Thanks to the Foundation and the young people
who are working on this urban garden project,
they have reached a lot of homes, including my home and my family.
We have planted a garden where I have several vegetables,
several little plants, so that we can start to plant
our own food in the earth.
And it is easier than waiting for some help to arrive.
We are learning to grow crops,
with the help of the seedlings you've been giving us.
We have already planted,
and in two or three months, we will have our food.
As the next step, after the food baskets,
we have decided to develop an urban garden project,
and we have helped people with seedlings,
with technical assistance,
bringing earth from the country
to provide nutrition to the soil in the city
because this has been one of the biggest challenges,
that the soil is low in bio-inputs.
It does not have what is needed for plants to grow well.
So, our objective has been to hand out seedlings,
but also to teach about the soil getting nutrients,
so that it can be viable for sowing the gardens.
People started getting involved,
people started liking it and more people started to come
and now we have close to 20 urban gardens here in Alpachaca.
So it's something that has expanded a lot
and we have been working hard
to be able to consolidate something,
that is something that it's not just temporary,
but it becomes something that people will go on working
and not leave it aside.
There are 12 communities who have extensive gardens.
There are several that have 50 to 60 families sharing in a large space,
others with 5 to 10 families.
But in the end, these gardens are significantly more productive,
the families not only include what we give as seeds and seedlings,
but they also are planting their native corn and beans and peas,
and things that they also without a larger space aren't able to plant.
So now these days, months into the project,
the families are harvesting the food
from their family and community gardens,
and they're sending us pictures of their harvest,
of their cooking in the kitchen, and all the kids around the table.
We have harvested beetroots, we are harvesting chard,
and actually, these are products
that go from the plant to the pot,
very nice, very healthy, and you feel that.
It's not like what you buy in the supermarket
that doesn't even have a taste.
This is a total change.
It has been a gratifying experience.
What we have sown ourselves, we have harvested
and seen how
what we have produced with our own hands
will be good for us,
and it's a change in the mental “chip”
that I think is needed in all the population,
so that they can see the benefit
of organic farming,
especially in the city,
because we are used to a different reality.
That is my experience, and it influences the economy,
the environmental aspect, and the social aspect.
It's a holistic thing; it's very complex,
this thing of the ecological practice.
We've received word from many agencies around the world
that food security is the number one crisis
that is not only becoming the number one emergency in the world,
but will continue to grow.
And on top of that, there's a recognition
that seed banks and that a community has access to seed
that can continually effectively grow nutritional food
that this is the solution
to food security in a sustainable manner.
The seed banks are necessary because the great diversity
created through thousands of years by our ancestors
have been extinguished, they have disappeared.
Planting seeds or rescuing seeds, obviously when you do this,
you do not only rescue seeds, you rescue a life.
Wherever we go, we always find somebody who is a guardian,
who falls in love and falls head over heels with the seeds.
People usually only think about buying the seeds at the store,
and they have forgotten about keeping,
and the culture around seeds.
So I think it is very good that
the vegetable varieties start to be rescued
because the elders are losing them.
And knowing and having a local place where you can access those seeds
is very important.
We wish for this project to continue; we wish for more doors to open
so that we can continue to fight, continue to work
for the people who need us the most.
Because this is something we do from the heart, with a lot of love.
And there are a lot of families that we still have to help,
and we want to continue fighting and not stop this work,
but to continue and for more people to join us
and to be able to do it as big as necessary
for all the families that need it
so that the Calle Paz y Respeto collective can reach them.
The word sustainable enters in here
because the pandemic has really brought forth
the question of where do we get our food,
what is the food source, what do we depend on.
Long live the seed bank!
Thank you very much for everything!