She Smiles When She is Allowed to Pick Tomatoes
“My youngest child, Yorti aged two years old, is an active and adorable kid who really likes to touch anything that can be reached and put it in her mouth. Ever since our yard has been planted with vegetables, she really likes to pick tomatoes and eat it directly to her mouth. I used to forbid her when she did this because I thought it may cause sickness. But now as we grow vegetables using organic fertilizers, she can eat them after being washed and smiles a lot while enjoying the tomatoes from the trees.”
Marta Tuke, 35, said these words when she shared her story of planting eggplant, tomatoes, and leafy vegetables in her yard. She used to be surprised by the change of her children’s attitude about eating, especially Yorti, her youngest daughter, who kept asking for extra vegetables with tomatoes for each meal. Yorti began to enjoy eating tomatoes directly from the trees and started to cry uncontrollably every time Marta told her not to do it.
In March 2013, Marta started to be involved in Helen Keller Intl activities in her village, Hoi, in Oenino sub-district in Indonesia. As a household mother who spends most of her time at home while her husband works as a carpenter and stone man, she plants the seeds given by HKI in her yard to be used for domestic consumption. With the assistance of her group leader, Selfince, Marta gained new knowledge on the importance of household production of micronutrient rich foods following nutrition education. She also received suggestions from her group leader on using organic fertilizers after seeing Yorti’s habits of picking tomatoes from the trees. She implemented this new knowledge at her house and has many more tomato trees in the yard, ready to be picked and eaten after being washed with water.
