Vinnie’s Garden was created in 2020 at the Haven of Hope Bolivia campus as a sustainability project that not only feeds fifty-plus children, teens and staff, but provides valuable lessons in reaping and sowing. The children experience first-hand the faithfulness of God’s love and provision in their lives as they harvest the rewards of their hard work in the garden.
Over the past two years, Bolivia has been hit hard by the Covid pandemic, The constraints 2020 placed across the globe with the inability to travel, health concerns, and supply chain issues left the orphan care home challenged to find sustainable solutions to provide nutritious food for the children consistently.
Vinnie’s Garden became the launching pad to diminish the risk of food shortages and develop a self-sustaining food source at Haven of Hope Bolivia to assure that the children would be able to have healthy, nutritious meals.
The garden has become a blessing in providing enough fresh food for the home and creating enough excess to sell at the market. The children are learning the process of preparing the garden, planting, tending and, harvesting the crops. This skill set will provide them with a lifetime of self-sustainability that they can utilize to help others.
In addition to the vegetable garden, Haven of Hope Bolivia also has chickens that provide eggs and meat, as deemed necessary. The chicken manure creates compost and fertilizer for the garden.
To see the joy on the children’s faces as they watch the garden go from a patch of land to a space filled with fresh food that they enjoy at every meal is priceless. It is through your support and God’s grace that the children not only survive but thrive. As we continue to move forward with your help, we are duplicating the garden and small farm in our other orphan care partner homes as feasible.