Emily Sandall Foundation

The Foundation is proud to again support The Garden’s Edge/Qachuu Aloom/Mother Earth Association in Guatemala.
A strong desire to work towards creating a more sustainable future led founding members Sarah Montgomery and Aaron Lemmon to Guatemala in 2003 where they started a project to help indigenous farmers preserve their traditional seeds and agricultural practices.
After addressing the need for better food security, They helped local villagers organize their own independently run farmer and women’s association, called (Qachuu Aloom “Madre Tierra”) The Mother Earth Association. The Association works to improve soils, combat erosion, reforest the area, gather, store and sell native seeds, teach families how to run small businesses, and many other community initiated projects.
The Garden’s Edge has expanded into New Mexico and is working with sustainable agriculture, and environmental education.
The Emily Sandall Foundation has donated this year towards the micro-lending and scholarship projects to help Guatemalan women improve their futures for themselves and their families.
The scholarships are offered to female members of the Association, or daughters of the members, who would otherwise not have the opportunity to attend school. In exchange for their scholarship, the girls volunteer once a week at the Association, work in their garden, and teach literacy skills to a group of a 10 illiterate women in their communities. Their fields of study include: education, nursing, management, and accounting.

Micro-Lending Program- Using much of the philosophy of Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus’ successful micro lending program in Bangladesh, they offer small loans to their members to jumpstart small-scale enterprises, or improve the infrastructure of their home or gardens.

Success story: Qachuu Aloom loaned $20.00 to a woman to start making shampoo. She is a single mother, and now sells her shampoo in 2 municipalities. She has developed her own mixtures, and says she has been able to buy meat for her children for the first time in their lives. Having a small amount of start up capital can be instrumental in helping a person out of poverty.

Scholarship program for women – Traditionally, women in Guatemala have not received the same educational opportunities as men. Almost 80% of rural Maya women are illiterate. To address this problem, Qachuu Aloom started in 2007 a scholarship program for women to access junior and senior high school.

Wouldn’t Emily love this organization that combines her love of farming with empowering women and their families through education, training and micro-loans?
We wish Sarah Montgomery and the Garden’s Edge much success with their wonderful projects.