Meet Champa Begum
Meet Champa Begum who has started to cultivate a homestead garden full of nutricious foods - for her and her family to eat, but also to sell at the local market
Champa Begum (26) lives in Gerabunia village, in southern coastal Bangladesh. She has a son (14) and a daughter of three years. Her husband works as a day labourer, and they struggle to provide for their family. Through our Max Nutri-WASH programme, she was encouraged to cultivate vegetables in her backyard.
Champa Begum actively attended the monthly sessions conducted by Max Nutri-WASH staff in her village, encouraging homestead gardening to ensure good nutrition for children. She became interested but didn’t know what to do. We helped her with site selection, preparing the beds, and on which (nutritious) seeds to plant, such as okra, bitter gourd, and others.
Her husband began helping in the garden. He also started selling the vegetables in the local market. This garden is helping Champa meet the nutritional needs of her family.
At the same time, the surplus vegetables sold on the market contribute to the family income. She now cultivates vegetables in the backyard in year-round. Champa says that the Max NutriWASH sessions in her village have changed her life, with wonderful results for her family.