USAID’s Urban Gardens Program Improves Lives of HIV Affected Children and Women

December 21, 2006 
No. 49/06

Addis Ababa (U.S. Embassy) -- Nearly 10,000 households are now managing urban vegetable gardens to improve their nutritional status and increase their income level.  All of these homes, based in urban areas across the country, are headed by low-income women or orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) affected by HIV/AIDS, many receiving home-based care. 

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) began the Urban Agriculture Program for HIV Affected Children & Women in 2004, focusing on Addis Ababa and Bahir Dar.  The success of the program in these two cities led to an expansion to four other major urban areas – Gondar, Dessie, Adama, and Awassa – benefiting nearly 40,000 Ethiopians.

The program is part of the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, a five year, $15 billion dollar commitment to combat the pandemic in more than 120 countries in the world. An important component of the initiative is to combine training on gardening techniques, like drip irrigation management, with HIV/AIDS education. Urban garden beneficiaries are also linked to other PEPFAR Ethiopia supported HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment services.  

In addition to the production of food and generation of income for the household, the gardening activity provides other benefits to the households, members of the community, and the environment.  Instead of focusing on their illness or a family member’s illness due to HIV/AIDS, program participants spend time managing their gardens. They also talk to other community members when selling their crop surplus, teaching neighbors about vegetable growing and reducing HIV/AIDS stigma and discrimination.  Of the over 13,000 orphans and vulnerable children served by the program to date, many children are using the money they get from selling their vegetables to buy school supplies such as pencils, pens and exercise books. 

The urban gardens use a micro drip irrigation system, which is a more efficient use of water and labor compared to conventional gardening.  The gardens also play a vital role in environmental care, as many of the garden plots were once dumping sites or unused land.  In addition, solid waste from the household is recycled as compost, or organic fertilizer, for the gardens. 

The program is led by Development Alternatives Inc. (DAI), working with a network of 23 local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and associations of people living with HIV/AIDS.

For more information, please contact:

Kimberly Flowers
Development Outreach and Communications (DOC) Officer
USAID/Ethiopia
 
Tel: (251) 11-551-0088
Fax: (251) 11-551-0043
Cell: (251) 91-150-0414

####