Morell founds Gardens for Health International > Roosevelt Home > Yale > Press Room > Morell founds Gardens for Health International
August 2007 -- Former Center on International Development Co-Director Emily Morell spent the summer in Rwanda working for the international NGO that she co-founded to implement her own policy ideas, Gardens for Health International (GHI). GHI works to build community gardens to provide the necessary nutritional support for HIV and AIDS patients.
Morell first developed the idea for GHI after spending the summer in Rwanda as an intern for the Clinton Foundation. Realizing that nutrition was a major gap in the existing treatment programs for HIV/AIDS, Morell explored the idea of creating a nutritional community garden program. GHI has partnered with the Rwandese Network for People Living with HIV/AIDS (known as the RRP+), a coordinating body for Rwanda's nearly 1,000 associations of HIV+ individuals, with over 75,000 members nationwide. The RRP+ is so excited about GHI that they are committed to working to expand the program into each of Rwanda's five provinces within the next three years. To date, GHI has helped 30 associations (4,131 people) of HIV+
individuals form 9 agricultural cooperatives. They contracted two lawyers to lead a week-long training session to teach representatives from each association about cooperative statutes and laws and help them fill out necessary forms. Related Materials and Links: Gardens for Health International website
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