Preserving the Mayan-Achi Food System
This is a health and nutrition programme to strenghten cultural identity and the Mayan-Achi food system. The project aims to preserve knowledge about local plants and seeds, and, as a result, safeguard biodiversity in the area. It also contributes to improved health in families, and promotes community well-being through the rescue, conservation, and use of native plants with high nutritional and medicinal potential. The initiative focuses on three key areas:
1.Strengthen maternal and child nutrition through the production and use of plants with high nutritional content. The project supports the creation of mother-to-mother exchanges. This methodology focuses on workshops where women can share knowledge with one another, covering a variety of topics ranging from infant nutrition to the preparation of healthy foods. By orienting the project around mothers, the potential for adoption and implementation is greater because mothers and women more generally tend to oversee the health and nutrition of the entire community.
2. Rescue local knowledge and practices around edible and medicinal plants for comprehensive and preventive health. The project preserves local plant species through education and workshops focusing on the importance of diversified crops and plants high in nutritional or medicinal value. Members are also taught to harvest and process these plants to take advantage of their nutritional and medicinal value.
3.Improve the commercialisation of organic products and medicinal plants The project promotes monthly visits to 12 healthy community stores that exist in eight communities. During the visits, verious products are reviewed, new products are delivered and a workshop is held to teach recipe preparation. These organic products are kept affordable so the entire community can access them. The products also give women an alternative income stream so they can reinvest in their communities, farms and families