"Victory gardens are easy to create, cost nothing for the villager to maintain, and produce food within weeks."

Atupele and her husband Mavuto, who live in a small village outside of Lilongwe, used to rely on getting food from their neighbors. But after starting their victory garden, they not only provided food for their growing family, they sold surplus vegetables, bought a bicycle, dug a well, and rented one acre of land to grow sweet potatoes. From potato cuttings from their garden, of course.

Charity Cosmos can now pay the school fees for her sons by selling okra and papaya from her victory garden. “My kids help me take care of the garden. They even enjoy cooking the vegetables!”

Chief Bito loves experimenting in his garden. In 2018, he grew acacia trees. Less than 10 months later, he tell us “ I sold 6 ox carts of wood worth nearly $60. And I still have the trees!”

Chun Sim and her husband Seang Samet live in Sdok Chum village in Cambodia and are both farmers by trade. Seang urged his wife to join the Campaign knowing her passion for gardening and interest in learning about permaculture practices. By October 2018 Chun had created her very first victory garden. Her garden was 8m x 4m in size and contained Chinese radish, green mustard, long bean, and cucumbers. After only a few months many more vegetables were added into the rotation and it now has 5 kind of herbs including basil, rice paddy herbs, frog leg, green onion, water dropwort, chinese chives, green mustard, saw leaf, ginger, turmeric, galangal root, Ttaro, chili, kale, chinese radish, morning glory, sponge gourd, eggplant, bok choy, and elephant ear. Chun has learned several planting techniques and using a variety of containers has planted:  Bamboo Circle Gardens, in which a variety of vegetables can be planted and due to it's small size can retain water, especially during the dry season  Foam Container Gardens, which are portable, conserve water and space, and can be used in either the rainy or dry seasons  Palm Frond Container Gardens, Water Buckets, and Plastic Bottles. Benefits From The Garden: Every month Chun and Seang have enough healthy food, free of pesticides and chemical fertilizers, for their family to eat, and are able to sell around $150 worth of surplus vegetables.

Rosebey Benga created her first Victory Garden in March 2018 right after the training from The Face-to-Face Project and is now able to feed her mother and two grandchildren with help from her garden! She managed to earn k4,000 ($5) from selling tomatoes, and used the money to buy a piece of fabric and floor mat to sleep on. In addition to selling vegetables, Rosebey and her family are eating vegetables from the second generation of her Victory Garden. Rosebey reported that she and her family used to sleep on the floor and would often go to bed on empty stomachs. Rosebey has said she is “very thankful for the Victory Garden program because she is not struggling anymore.”

Foster defied his and other people’s pessimism for months about the impact that having a victory garden could have — and now he’s helping his fellow villagers create their own gardens.

At age 67, taking care of 3-orphaned grandchildren is tough — especially when your husband has also passed away. Without any means of income, Rhoda Janasani said the family used to have no food to eat before going to sleep.

Rosebey Benga created her first Victory Garden in March 2018 right after the training from The Face-to-Face Project and is now able to feed her mother and two grandchildren with help from her garden! She managed to earn k4,000 ($5) from selling tomatoes, and used the money to buy a piece of fabric and floor mat to sleep on. In addition to selling vegetables, Rosebey and her family are eating vegetables from the second generation of her Victory Garden. Rosebey reported that she and her family used to sleep on the floor and would often go to bed on empty stomachs. Rosebey has said she is “very thankful for the Victory Garden program because she is not struggling anymore.”

Saukani's story is on the homepage (and what a story it is).

Silva putting in the hard work!

Meet Silva. Local community members like Silva Namikula wondered if she and her family would survive the famine of 2016. After learning about The Face-to-Face Project’s Victory Garden Campaign, Silva decided to gain the skills and knowledge needed to fight her own war against hunger and drought by changing how she grows her food. Together, we were able to achieve that goal by creating her very first Victory Garden in August 2016. By September Silva’s garden thrived, even though learning new farming practices that make the most out of minimal water availability were very new to her. By November, Silva helped her neighbors create their own Victory Gardens, and compared to August when no one had a garden, a whopping 60% of homes in Silva’s village now do! Silva has now also created her second Victory Garden. Many villages saw dramatic increases, due in part to neighbors teaching neighbors. Since home gardens are visible to everyone, people are naturally curious about these new sources of food, helping them re-envision the area around the home that is traditionally left as hard packed clay that is swept clean everyday. While millions of bags of food relief for Malawi pile up in distribution centers, Silva and her village are now counting on themselves to control their future. The Victory Garden Campaign succeeds because it puts the skills and knowledge into the hands of those that need it most, ultimately making it productive and lasting.

Soun came to Toul Makak village 27 years ago and is now married with 8 children and 20 grandchildren. Soun, who was interested in organic farming, created his first victory garden in October 2018 after hearing about The Face-to-Face Project’s Campaign. The family has one hectare of rice field, but is only able to harvest it once a year. Before Soun created his victory garden, the family would buy about $1 worth of vegetables every day. Now, Soun and his family are saving money, eating healthier, and sharing this knowledge with their children.

A year ago, Yern had almost nothing in his garden. Polio made construction or rice field labor impossible, so life for he and his wife was so difficult. Today, we counted a whopping 60 kinds of plants and trees in his victory garden. He sells produce every day, and he and his family are very happy.

Addison Gafali grows over 30 kinds of vegetables and fruits in his victory garden — enough to feed his household of 12, with plenty left over to sell on a regular basis.

Joyce Pameta and her husband never thought that a home garden could change their lives so much. “We keep learning,” Joyce says, “and we’ve never been happier.”