November 2005 Newsletter
Page 4 of 7
Special Programs
Kitchen Garden Workshop
Our first Kitchen Garden Workshop was held on November 21. A local man from Sunwal village in Nawalparasi District facilitated the workshop with the Women's Club of Kunwar village. For follow up, he will continue to work with the club over several months to teach them vegetation and worm composting techniques, to rotate crops to preserve and replenish the soil, to plant a variety of vegetables in small gardens, and to raise fruit trees and manage bee farms.
These workshops will be held at least once a month to learn about seasonal fruits and vegetables. The produce can be marketed locally. Thus, the gardens will bring nutrients to the diets and income to the subsistence economies of families in these poor communities.
Nutrition Workshop
From time to time we get help for our program from volunteers. During September, Patti Wheeler, a nutritionist from Georgia (USA), conducted a special Nutrition and Health Workshop for village women. The workshop was held in Kunwar, the first village in Nawalparasi to receive filters. The workshop focused on the elements of good nutrition, personal hygiene and the importance of a woman in her community. The women enthusiastically celebrated the workshop by presenting Patti and Linda with flowers, fans and baskets.
157 women (and a few men) attended the workshop. Patti brought lots of information on diets that help chelate (or sequester) arsenic from the body. During Spring 2006 we plan to conduct another workshop based on Patti's agenda, using a Nepalese woman with a background in community health to conduct the workshops.
We shopped the local markets for protein, all colors of vegetables, beans for sprouting, fruits and seed packets. We served an Indian dish that includes rice, vegetables, nuts, and coconut as an example of a healthy meal. Samples of the food were covered by a cloth and flowers to protect them from flies and wasps.
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As women filed into the workshop tents, they brought flowers and cloth fans as a gift to Patti.
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Patti stressed the importance of eating food that represent the colors of the rainbow.
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Rajesh is showing a woman how to clean under her nails using a file and brush before cooking.
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Patti demonstrates a facial with a local woman, using corn meal. Later she showed them how to use small amounts of vinegar in water to protect their skin from bacteria.
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Women are listening to Patti's demonstration on how to brush their teeth. We used the small tent in the back for Patti to give personal counseling to women after the workshop. This picture shows the high turnout for this event.
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Research
In addition to the work of Filters for Families in arsenic-affected villages of southern Nepal, we are also engaged in arsenic-related biological and geological research. Recently, for example, we received a grant from UNDP/GEF (Global Environmental Facility)/SPG (Small Grant Program) for a study entitled 'Using Nature to Remove Arsenic'. This research has shown that a large number of Nepalese jungle plants uptake soil arsenic in varying concentrations. The plants store arsenic in the vacuole of the cells where it does not affect the plant. We have found that the jungle soil arsenic in reduced by this uptake of arsenic in the lower soil (15 to 30 inches).
Along with the plants, soil, water and groundwater tracer tests we have also worked with the Environmental Science Program at Kathmandu University to culture water for microbes that use arsenic as energy, thus changing the arsenic from the solid (As V) to solution (As III). This will tell us if microbes play a major role in releasing arsenic from sediments into the groundwater. Knowing more about these plants and microbes may help us develop a more ecological solution or mitigation to the arsenic tragedy.
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