Honouring The Resilience of Mothers

Honouring The Resilience of Mothers

 This Mother’s Day, we at Canadian Feed The Children reflect on the powerful love and dedication that mothers - and those who take on mothering roles – have for their children.  

These past few years have been unpredictable, with many new challenges to health, safety, and wellbeing. Unsurprisingly, mothers around the world have shown incredible resilience, doing all they can to provide healthy nutrition for their families.  

Thanks to donor-supported programs like community and home gardens, mothers like Viviana in Bolivia are feeding their families with healthy ingredients and sharing the love of harvesting and cooking with their children.

Staying Safe and Healthy

We all remember what it was like striving to stay safe and healthy from COVID-19 as it emerged in 2020. Viviana recalls hearing in the media that children were among the most vulnerable. She knew the importance of cooking with vegetables rich in vitamins to protect her daughters from illness, but it wasn’t always easy to access affordable healthy food in her community.  

Viviana says: “We lack many things at the community, but we know we have to improve little by little.” 

Viviana stands over her garden, showing off vegetables.

Thanks to donor support, Viviana was able to participate in workshops at the Alpacoma Community Centre, where she learned about family agriculture and set up her own home garden. She was also provided a small chicken coop to supply her family with fresh eggs. She and her daughters now grow fresh vegetables like turnip, chard, parsley, lettuce, tomatoes, celery, and onion. She tells us that since she incorporated vegetables from her garden into her family’s meals everyday, they stayed healthy and strong and avoided getting sick during the pandemic! 

Not only does growing her own food help Viviana save money, but she has also even begun selling her produce to increase her family’s income.

This allows her to spend more on foods she does not grow herself including fresh fruit like oranges and tangerines and traditional ingredients like cañahua.   

Viviana and Ana Lucia prepare food.

Nowadays, many of Ana Lucia’s favourite foods are prepared with ingredients from her family garden. She and her siblings especially enjoy the salads, onion tortillas, and k’hati potato that her mother makes. But what she loves most is her mother’s quinoa soup.

Lucky for her, Viviana has a variety of vitamin-packed soups that she cooks for her family nearly every other day. We’re sure Ana Lucia will learn some of these delicious recipes (and even create some of her own) in no time! 

Viviana tells us she is happy to have her garden because she manages to produce all of the vegetables she needs for her whole family. She is also proud to have taken lessons on cooking and baking and can’t wait to learn more about preparing healthy and nutritious meals. 

Mother's Day Gift Guide: Flowers for Moms ($45) 

This Mother's Day you can honour mothers like Viviana with the Best.Gift.Ever. By choosing one of our matched gifts, you're not only getting a free e-card to celebrate the incredible women in your life, you're also supporting dedicated mothers around the world.

Thank you for helping mothers and their children thrive! 

Happy Mother’s Day to Viviana and all mothers around the world!