Ometepe Island
Nutrition, Education, & Income Generation
Ometepe Island - Balgue, Nicaragua
Based on Ometepe Island in southern Nicaragua, Project Bona Fide is a non-profit organization working to support and educate rural farming communities through short- and long-term projects addressing issues of food security. One of these projects is Café Infantil, a meal program for school-age children at risk for malnutrition. D.I.G. will work with the families of Café Infantil to create a community garden that will improve nutritional diversity in their diets and offer skills training in vegetable gardening with potential for income generation. This garden will also support Café Infantil’s long-term vision of meeting its own food needs with food grown within and by the community. In the village of Balgue, where Project Bona Fide is located, almost all the vegetables available are purchased off the island and imported at raised prices, making them inaccessible to much of the population. Through the Home Urban Garden program, D.I.G. will provide opportunities for single mothers and needy families to supplement their nutrition sources and open up the potential for a local vegetable market.
