Training Local Leaders, Cuba

This ‘train-the-trainer' project aims to improve access to healthy food for local communities by developing skills in sustainable cultivation and food preservation techniques. The Proyecto Comunitario Conservación de Alimentos (community project for food conservation) association, a member of the Terra Madre network since 2004, launched the project in 2009 and has developed community training workshops and supporting educational materials. Individuals who go through the training become ‘local leaders'; responsible and empowered to go out into the community and pass on their new knowledge.

By encouraging communities to grow a wide variety of fresh foods, the project aims to improve the Cuban diet, which is often severely lacking in diversity. Proyecto Comunitario has been working with families and producers across the Marianao municipality, in the province of Havana, teaching them to grow their own vegetables, pulses, herbs and fruit and to transform surplus harvest into preserves and other processed products. The focus is on organic cultivation methods and making use of limited resources carefully to obtain a good harvest of high quality.

The two founding members of Proyecto Comunitario Conservación de Alimentos have been developing education projects for more than fifteen years and work with many communities all over Cuba. They have also opened a small publishing house that produces books, CDs and videos on the topics of the training courses and host a weekly radio show on the Cuban public radio.

The activities

• organizing training courses (called "Learning-by-Doing") on growing food and natural preserving techniques;
• purchasing materials and equipment for food preserving (small green houses to dry produce, jars, labels etc.);
• producing and printing teaching/educational materials for participants;
• organizing a community fair at the Marianao city hall;
• producing and distributing materials to promote and communicate the project;

Project Area
Municipality of Marianao, province of Havana

Beneficiaries
4 trainers, 20 producers, 1,800 community members who will be taught the techniques learnt during the courses by producers

Total estimated costs 2012-2013
€ 3,000