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Walking through the streets of Merida on a sunny day in November, we noticed a small garden behind a preschool in the city. In a corner of the garden they had a hole where they threw some organic waste. When we saw it, the first thing that crossed our mind was to propose to the preschool the creation of a suitable community composting area, so that they could produce the necessary compost for the garden and at the same time promote composting in the community.

The preschool teachers were very interested in the proposal, having been prepared as environmental promoters and being aware of the need to make sustainable changes that allow us to adapt and mitigate the effects of climate change, they welcomed our proposal.

After holding a meeting in December with staff from the educational circuit of the city, the date of the meeting where we would present the program to the parents of the preschool children was finally set. And so, at the end of January the program was presented, its reception was positive and from there the first community composting zone of ​​our project began.

Currently despite quarantine we continue composting, receiving food waste from some people in the community and hoping that when the confinement situation ends we can finish the vermicomposting bin that we were preparing and thus be able to encourage more people to join the composting process. So that less waste ends up in the streets or the already collapsed landfill of the city and we can have at our disposal a nutritious substrate for our plants.

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In the heart of Mérida, in the middle of an extensive queue of cars in search of gasoline, we walk with rakes, garden hoes, a pitchfork and a machete in hand, in search of an alternative.

The cars stop when there is no gasoline, we continue.

Excited to have the opportunity to have found the first place where we can put our goals into practice: our first community garden. We arrived at the place and began to clean it. While we do it, in the midst of fatigue, we stop to take strength imagining how great it will be once it is over. We imagine the finished raised beds, the small space for the compost and the possible water collection system that we can install. This initiative and its multiplication can open our minds and strengthen food security.

That excites us, cultivate awareness and vegetables, that the food is within our reach and that the gardens win in space on the asphalt. It encourages us to continue, to gain awareness and contribute to the increase of food sovereignty.

We work hard to break the wall of apathy

The reminder of why we do it remains in our mind. Put fight when there is resignation, cooperation when there is individualism. We do not know if we will win, but the process of breaking the wall of apathy on a daily basis is already a victory against resignation, and we want to continue breaking it, sowing, thinking.

We are dissatisfied with the way the world is structured; that leads us to act, to choose to do something against hunger, environmental destruction, suffering and loss of peace. Do something, instead of sitting around waiting for someone else to come to save us, or for the knot to undo itself. Do something, instead of being mere spectators of life, instead of staying in the inertia of the one who cares only to save himself and who only leaves the individualism and apathy that reinforce and lengthen more the crisis.

Despite not being experts in what we seek to do, of not having all the answers, we have chosen to act so as not to lose ourselves in despair. Faced with the risk of getting lost in words, of remaining motionless in the face of the dissatisfaction that afflicts us, we must raise words and tools. Do the work ourselves – and here we are.

What all of us can do

Our call is not that we all have to grow food, our call is that we be aware of the reasons for current hunger, disease and the need to have food independence in a sustainable way. Therefore, we have to recover the knowledge of our ancestors about how to be able to be self-sufficient, and learn to produce locally and organically, using less fossil energy.

We thank the school of Philosophy “New Acropolis” in the city of Mérida for allowing us to work in its field.

You can be part of a transition movement where cooperation and mutual help are the main guide, to grow food, to think, and to open steps towards a new, resilient and supportive society.

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