Permaculture Maternity Garden

A healthy family needs FOOD! One of our biggest challenges in Malawi is hunger. Each year, bad soil, single crop dependence and expensive inputs make it more difficult for families to grow enough food.

Introducing expectant mothers to our Permaculture Maternity Garden, sharing ideas, seeds and seedlings with each mother will help us fight hunger in our community. Permaculture gardening promotes diverse and resilient food systems, allowing families to grow a variety of crops throughout the year and helping to ensure a more stable and secure food supply.

We need to raise $10,000 to kick start our Permaculture Maternity Program to continue training our farmers, send a permaculture specialist to the Grace Center for onsite, in-depth training, purchase seeds and seedlings to begin distribution to the mothers in our prenatal programs and print training materials. To donate for this program, visit our donate page and mark your donation Garden.

Expectant mothers will be welcomed into the garden during their prenatal visits. We’ll share simple farming methods that are easily replicable at home - expectant moms will find women working in the garden using tools and things that they have in their own homes. Every mom will go home with seeds or seedlings to plant in her own garden.

The Grace Community Health Center (GCHC) Maternity Permaculture Project was designed to create a holistic and ecological approach to improving maternal health outcomes in Malawi, Africa, a country with one of the highest maternal mortality rates globally. The project aims to improve health outcomes for pregnant women and provide a sustainable way for them to feed their families healthy and nutritious food. This will be accomplished by integrating human healthcare and environmental healthcare. Permaculture design is a method of creating human-centered landscapes in an integrated manner that is harmonious with local ecological, cultural, and social backgrounds. This project seeks to create a functional demonstration garden at the health center to be used to educate and empower pregnant women to plant gardens at their own homes using permaculture concepts.