FAO.org

Forty-one year old Sodhi and her husband Mithu were amongst the several hundred families living in village Phangario of district Tharparkar in Sindh province who struggled each day to fulfil the most basic needs for their families. In an area which is highly prone to droughts, Sodhi and her husband Mithu were barely able to get by with the wages that Mithun earned from his daily labour. However, taking advantage of the first opportunity that arose, and with sheer strength and perseverance, Sodhi quickly broke the vicious cycle of poverty and food insecurity that her family had been trapped in for several years.

Sodhi’s dream was realized when the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) with support from United Kingdom's Department for International Development (DFID) ran a training programme for the local women in Phangrio village to impart skills which would help these women establish their own kitchen gardens. Sodhi was one of the participants of the training programme. She learned how to grow vegetables at home and achieved the task she had thought nearly impossible due to the unavailability of irrigation water of setting up her own kitchen garden. She dealt with the challenges she was faced with in one way or another until none of these stood in the way to her success. 

Now that she is able to grow as many as eight different varieties of vegetables in her kitchen garden, she can cook fresh vegetables for her family each day. 

“Within a few months I have gone from only being able to cook vegetables twice each month to now having enough vegetables in my kitchen garden to cook fresh meals for my children everyday. My children are much healthier now. Even our medical expenses have gone down,” says Sodhi. “I am proud to say that I am helping my family become financially stronger and also contributing to my children’s well-being. I could not have asked for more.”