Over the last month good progress has been made regarding the Tandayapa plant nursery project.
The first 6 weeks since our arrival in Ecuador have been about establishing connections with the local community, introducing them to the project, designing and starting to build the nursery.
Early on in the process we were introduced to the President of Tandayapa. We had several meetings with him about the project, giving us a good insight to how the community functions. The president had an idea as to how we could best approach the community: We visited a party in the village of Tandayapa. We talked to a lot of people and competed in the local football tournament. These interactions where very important in order for the community to get to know us before we would start working in their village.
Shortly after, we invited the People of Tandayapa for a meeting in the village where we would present the concept of the community nursery. People had many questions and were excited.
They decided the nursery could best be placed in a central part of the village, emphasizing their enthusiasm for the project.
Having received green light we started preparing the construction of the nursery, which meant designing the plant beds, buying tools, wood and sourcing local help force.
Thanks to a lot of helping hands from the community of Tandayapa we where able to complete the basic nursery infrastructure in just three days. During the construction there has been a lot of emphasis on durability: sourcing wood that is durable and weather resistant for many years to come. The plant beds are made as strong as possible, weighing over 80kg each.
So what’s next?
The coming period will be used for designing and constructing the irrigation system as well as educating the community on running the nursery.
More updates to follow soon!
