Close The Gap
Background
Why is Cultiva Different? Why Support Cultiva?
At Cultiva we are wiping out external and internal poverty.
It’s a big goal and a bold claim, but we are doing it every day.
Here’s how we do it, we call it The Cultiva Way:
- Learn
- Earn
- Follow-up
Families earn their own garden box. That garden box provides nutritious food for their family. But it also empowers them. They’re doing it themselves.
Food in bellies. Hope in hearts.
We don’t give away food and create a cycle of dependence. We help people grow their own food to address the external poverty and in the process we address the internal poverty.
We come alongside and we stay with them on the journey….for a long time.
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Relationship. Mentoring. This is where you see real change happen. It isn’t in a day, or with 1 box of food. It takes time and understanding. This is what we are about. We go deep and we stay around.
To do this we need people who understand this culture, who know the people and their ways. So we hire native Guatemalans to be the ones who teach, listen and mentor. It isn’t done by volunteers, but people who have lived this life.
These village mentors, native Guatemalans who go teach, train and mentor also benefit. A job at Cultiva is life changing for them as well. In this developing country, a stable job with benefits and reliable pay is very hard to come by. A job where you get this and make a difference are very rare.
At Cultiva, people are programs.
See, lots of organizations do these humanitarian trips. Cultiva does them too. But people from rich countries swooping in and then disappearing — that’s not how you accomplish lasting change.
These full-time employees. These native, mostly indigenous Guatemalans who are part of the Cultiva team — that’s what changes lives.
It’s them teaching classes, mentoring families, doing home visits. Delivering vegetable starts. Looking someone in the eye and asking them what’s going on and asking how they need help.
Relationship.
Make a Donation
The Gap
COVID has wiped out %50 of our annual revenue.
To do this we need people who understand this culture, who know the people and their ways. So we hire native Guatemalans to be the ones who teach, listen and mentor. It isn’t done by volunteers, but people who have lived this life.
These village mentors, native Guatemalans who go teach, train and mentor also benefit. A job at Cultiva is life changing for them as well. In this developing country, a stable job with benefits and reliable pay is very hard to come by. A job where you get this and make a difference are very rare.
At Cultiva, people are programs.
See, lots of organizations do these humanitarian trips. Cultiva does them too. But people from rich countries swooping in and then disappearing — that’s not how you accomplish lasting change.
These full-time employees. These native, mostly indigenous Guatemalans who are part of the Cultiva team — that’s what changes lives.
It’s them teaching classes, mentoring families, doing home visits. Delivering vegetable starts. Looking someone in the eye and asking them what’s going on and asking how they need help.
Relationship.
What You Can Do
Sustainable impact requires sustainable revenue.
We’ve been working to grow the number of monthly donors to Cultiva.
We call this group “The Garden.”
The Garden is a special group of individuals who give monthly contributions because they want every person to have: hope, food security and the dignity to provide for their families.
Garden Members want to change lives by empowering others. We teach people to garden instead of just giving them a meal.
As of today, we have a gap of $6,105 a month.
Relationship. Mentoring. This is where you see real change happen. It isn’t in a day, or with 1 box of food. It takes time and understanding. This is what we are about. We go deep and we stay around.
Make a Donation
So this is our one goal.
Close the gap.
We need new members of The Garden to join us and help us close the gap created by the loss of revenue from Covid closures.
You can join The Garden with a monthly gift of any amount. Anything. No amount is too small. Your money goes a long way in Guatemala — and no matter how small the gift, a gift of any amount is like you saying that you’re with us — that you are with us in our fight to end poverty.
Click Here to join The Garden today.
You can also look at our Giving Menu Page to learn more about how your gift makes a difference, whether you are giving $5 or $10,000.
For more information about ways to give or to get more involved in our efforts to close the gap, contact Cultiva International director of development Clark Vandeventer at clark@cultivainternational.org or at 805-284-6127.
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