70 Students from Unidad Educativa Santa Luisa de Marillac Visit the Center for Ecological Agriculture

Yesterday, 70 Students from the Unidad Educativa Santa Luisa de Marillac visited Mano a Mano’s Center for Ecological Agriculture.

The Center for Ecological Agriculture (CEA) provides low-cost, low-tech training for rural Bolivian farmers; as part of its training it also hosts kids from the city and surrounding urban and peri-urban areas to learn more what life is like in rural areas, and about topics like the environment and climate change. Over the past month, Mano a Mano has hosted hundreds of students to tour the CEA.

For many of these kids, this is their first time seeing a farm, and simple things like learning where milk comes from can be an eye-opening experience.

The animals at the CEA are always the favorite part of the tour.

Pictures from Unidad Educativa Santa Luisa de Marillac Visit

70 Students from Unidad Educativa Santa Luisa de Marillac Visit the Center for Ecological Agriculture, October 10, 2017.

Mano a Mano Agronomist Victor showing students the difference between apples and peaches in the fruit orchard at the CEA.

Mano a Mano Agronomist Camila teaching kids about crop rotation.

1,485 Kids Have Visited the CEA in 2017

So far this year, more than 1,485 kids have visiting the CEA, which is a 43% increase from the number of kids that visited for all of 2016:

2017 – 1,485 students have visited the CEA (through mid-October)
2016 – 1,040 students visited the CEA

Students visiting the CEA, August 2017.

Training, Tools, and Tours for More than 4,000 People Through the Center for Ecological Agriculture in 2016 (from 2016 Annual Report)

Bolivian farmers touring Mano a Mano’s Center for Ecological Agriculture on the outskirts of Cochabamba with Mano a Mano agronomist Camila Yavira Garcia.

Mano a Mano’s Center for Ecological Agriculture (CEA) provides training and tools to improve food security & nutrition for Bolivian farm families. The tools available include cisterns and other small water projects, greenhouses, livestock pens, and biodigesters. The training includes on-site workshops at the CEA, as well as training provided directly in communities. The CEA has continued to grow and become more and more of an integral Mano a Mano program. In 2016, below is a rundown of the activities at the CEA:

385 farmers received training at the CEA
205 farmers received training by Mano a Mano’s agronomist in their communities
2,310 farmers were trained by other farmers that had previously received training from Mano a Mano (‘training the trainer’)
110 greenhouses were constructed
1,040 local Bolivian students and 138 other visitors (government officials, travelers from the US and Europe, etc.) received educational tours of the CEA
Volunteers contributed 9,481 hours at the CEA
4,000 liters of milk (from the cow that lives at the CEA) were donated to a local orphanage

Watch a Video Tour of the Center for Ecological Agriculture:

70 Students from Unidad Educativa Santa Luisa de Marillac Visit the Center for Ecological Agriculture