I live in the community of Las Breñas, Kukra River, Nicaragua and have six children and two grand-children.  Five years ago my family started with the Suatainable Harvest International program, and we now believe that organic and sustainable farming is the best way to get out of poverty.

As a woman I have felt my dream realized, when I see that my garden produces more each year and with better quality.  SHI has made a big change in our lives, given that today my children have different vegetables and our nutrition is better every day.

SHI is an organization that demands continual work, but you see results.  I hope that every year, more women have the opportunity of working with SHI, because it’s an organization that benefits our families and teaches us to protect our environment.

~ Marta Rojas, Nicaragua

Before starting with Sustainable Harvest Honduras, I was working for a commercial company, where we’d work seven days a week without rest, like robots, with the purpose of bettering the finances of the company – not the human relations between people.

I began working for SHI in 2001 and am now Micro-Enterprise Specialist.  I love everything that I do.  I can see the fruits of this work, like when families start with small funds and after a year there is a big difference.

The success that SHI has with the community has been thanks to the donors.  We hope to count on these caring hearts to help us expand to more communities. We invite you to come to Honduras, to see with your own eyes and be given faith in what we are achieving with your donations.  Many thanks!

~ Lily Andrare Ferrera, Honduras

When Sustainable Harvest International started working in my community of El Entradero, Panama in 2007, they invited me to join, but I did not believe in the organization.  I did not believe in organic fertilizers, as I’d always used the technique of slash-and-burn and believed commercial fertilizers were better.

Last year, I applied to a government agency offering to give us seeds and supplies (such as pesticides and fertilizers).  There were long lines for two days, but when my turn came they told me that I was not on the list and they wouldn’t give me anything.  I left very humiliated, crying towards my house.  But on the way, I met Diomedes, the SHI field trainer, and with much shyness I asked him for help.  I said to him that I was now determined to learn the organic techniques he was teaching to the families.

The first thing that Diomedes did was to explain to me the mission of SHI, and we formed a plan to make fertilizers and to start planting vegetables and rice.  Now I have ten big rice paddies, and plots of corn and beans, and already I have harvested vegetables.  I have always dreamed of having a well-stocked farm and now my dream, with the help of SHI, has become a reality, together with my seven children.

Since I’ve been with SHI my morale is high, I feel very important and my children eat better.  Many thanks to all those who have helped this wonderful program for the poor families of Panama.

~ Ruth Briseida Martínez, Panama

Click here to view our online photo gallery of women and children
whose lives have been changed by their work
with Sustainable Harvest International.