This summer, I started a small garden in my backyard. After building a raised bed and planting small seedlings, I anxiously (and impatiently) waited to see signs of growth. I planted red bell peppers, summer squash, zucchini, eggplant, and green beans. Every afternoon, I watered and weeded the bed until one day in July, I began to see some new developments. A small bell pepper was beginning to form on one of the plants! Gardening
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The SNAP Challenge is a weeklong experiment to get a glimpse of what life can be like for low-income Americans living on food stamps. The average daily food stamp benefit is only $4 per person per day. I took on this challenge for a “Justice and Civil Society” course in college to better understand the difficulties and unfairness of our nation’s lack of food security. My limit for a week’s worth of meals was
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The concept of entrepreneurism is highly regarded by the general public, because it epitomizes the qualities of creativity, determination, and risk-taking. We root for entrepreneurs to be successful, because they show that such characteristics can lead to positive results. Social entrepreneurs augment this illustration of a business, because they aim to assist disadvantaged and impoverished communities. Social entrepreneurship is the backbone of development in third-world countries, providing opportunities for people to sustain economic prosperity. All
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A natural medicine (Ayurveda) workshop was held at the Profugo Center of Development on September 1, 2015, with grand success! 34 ladies from the community attended the workshop. The preparation for the workshop started on the previous day with the participants collecting various ingredients for the preparation of medicines. Sisters Innocent MSMI and SCelin Rose, two catholic nuns, and Mrs. Mary Peedikamalayil, all local experts in traditional medicine making guided the participants. The following items
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Monsoon season in Wayanad is quickly approaching but even though the torrential rains will bring large volumes of much needed moisture, Wayanad and the entire state of Kerala continue to endure severe drought outside of the rainy months. The lush greenery of the Wayanad hillsides turns to a parched yellow in the months of the dry season. A large percentage of the monsoon rains are lost as run off into the Arabian Sea due to
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