Millet Season

The work here is about so much more than just building houses. People are working at rebuilding their lives. There's a quick snap shot that makes the news, but a deeper story too. Looking at the deeper story can mean the difference of just doing relief or taking it further to community development.

Short Story: these women are processing recently harvested millet where their house used to stand.

Longer Story: These families primarily grow corn and wheat for subsistence and some income. Some millet is also grown to make beer, either used as a carb-heavy energy drink or to sell and generate income to buy vegetables. This is a common way by which hill families obtain vegetables. It's not a stretch to think that a family could end up with three times the nutritious vegetables for less effort if they were to plant vegetable gardens and skip the process of cultivating millet, producing beer, and competing on a market.

Opposed to what you might think, it is very hard for a farmer to accept a gardening approach. There are a lot of barriers to modifying the tradition which has made proper nutrition tough here. And nobody can really fault the villagers. Fathers have relied on this strategy for a thousand years. Helping a family grow their own vegetables is one project we can implement if the right combination of need and teachable attitude comes up.