UNION COMUNAL DE HUERTAS ORGANICAS (UCHO)

UCHO seeks to create income generation opportunities for women which also promote the use of environmentally friendly agricultural practices. UCHO consists of 16 groups of low-income women who promote the use of organic orchards, drum and mud ovens, solar dryers and other alternative systems. Thanks to this initiative, they can self-supply their families as well as sell the production surplus. Through a strategic alliance with the municipality and the community, they implement a system of recycling of organic trash generated at home, which produces compost (concentrated organic fertilizer). An UCHO ecology focused team motivates, registers, and trains the neighbors to separate their home organic disposals into special baskets. The municipality then sends a truck to collect the organic disposals from the 1,500 registered families and deposit them in the compost producing plant. The plant is located on land lent by the municipality to UCHO. 12,100kg of organic fertilizers are generated annually and are distributed between the families who participate in the program, the 16 groups of UCHO and the municipality. Because it manages to bring consciousness and to massively involve the community of Tomé, the experience is being monitored by diverse social organizations, national and regional authorities that hope to implement it in other Chilean towns.