GrowEastAfrica.org, a project of the Diaspora Burji Community Organization (EIN 47-3363829), is actively working in the Burji District of the SNNP region of Southern Ethiopia improving livelihoods of rural farmers and internally displaced peoples (IDPs) by employing vegetable gardening and planting quinoa. Our mission is to help improve livelihoods of these families with emphases on sustainable solutions that include access to 1) quality education, 2) clean water, 3) health services and 4) rural agriculture and development.
We started our initiative by engaging in the rural agriculture and development segment that impacts the most in need members of the community. We initiated two proven initiatives of distributing goats and helping to grow nutritional vegetable gardens as well as other high-value crops. The vegetable gardens serve as effective short-term approaches to improve livelihoods.
Since 2016, we partnered with the Soyama Ladies Association which has over 300 members throughout the Burji district and the Soyama town Brihan Group. The aim is to grow the nutritional vegetable and quinoa gardens to help improve food security for the IDPs. In addition, we provided the Brihan group with additional seed money to participate in the buying and reselling of grains in the local market as a means to supplement their income. The Behan ladies are members of the Mega area internally displaced people (IDP) currently residing in the Burji District. Current small vegetable garden plots are inter-dispersed in the office compound.