Make a Difference

Northeast India, officially known as the North Eastern Region (NER), is India's easternmost region, representing the country's geographical and political-administrative division. It comprises eight states: Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim.

Though the human development indicators are relatively favourable, the region has not been able to build on its strengths and capture its potential. People's living standard in this region has lagged significantly compared with the rest of the country. The human poverty level is high in the region's rural and urban areas. The nutritional poverty in terms of the calorie gap in rural areas is lower than the all-India level. This negatively impacts the health and education of the younger generation.

Thrive, through its partners, has been working with various schools since June 2022 and has helped students learn to grow healthy, nutritious foods that have resulted in positive changes in their studies, development and well-being. This reinforces the need for Thrive to intervene in the region by working with an additional 50 schools in the next couple of years. The project will help the schools to start their own Life Gardens by teaching bio-intensive agricultural techniques and providing them with the needed tools, seeds, and supplies.

In the first year, funds will be used to expand Thrive's community Life Garden Projects in two states, i.e. Manipur and Assam and expand to other states in the following year.

"Thrive helped us prepare a Life Garden to grow vegetables free of chemicals and with more nutrients. We now produce our own food that is fresher and healthier. We are trying and hoping to produce more fresh organic vegetables to supply our school boarding of around 120 students."

This project will create the following impact:

• 4 Growing Health Champions trained and certified.
• 100 Life Gardens projects established in schools.
• 15,000 students and parents growing and eating nutritious, disease-fighting foods.
• 3.8 million meals produced annually.
• $2.5 million value of meals produced annually.
  

Please help reach our fundraising goal so that 50 more schools in North East India can start Life Garden projects that will grow healthy, nutritious foods for the students and their families.

You will receive a tax receipt from Thrive for Good for your contribution.

Your Donation Dollars are Going Far!

With knowledge, simple tools, and starter seeds, people who can't afford to buy healthy food can grow their own - almost anywhere in the world. It costs $15 per person to produce nutrient-dense, life-giving foods and proven natural medicines and provide a sustainable source of potential income generation.

Hidden Hunger is Everywhere

The biggest health challenge today is unequal access to nutrition. 2 billion people - including 1 in 3 children - aren't getting enough micronutrients to reach their full potential and fight disease.

It shows up in wealthy countries where packaged and fast foods are cheaper than fresh fruits and vegetables.

It happens mostly in poor countries, where the priority is to get food in bellies, and "nutrition" means meal after meal of processed, white grains and corn. Because even among farming families in the world’s poorest countries, people aren’t growing nutrient-dense foods.

But developing brains and bodies are hungry for micronutrients. Without real nutrition, children never get a fair chance. They can't thrive, and their immunity isn't strong enough to fight infection. In fact, 45% of deaths in children under the age of 5 are related to poor nutrition.

Hidden hunger keeps people from improving their own lives. It causes kids to miss school. It keeps adults from work when they're chronically ill. And it orphans too many children.

The diseases caused by hidden hunger cost the poor too much to treat if they have access to healthcare at all. And the burden of disease from hidden hunger keeps the best work of charities from making enough impact. Because nutrition is a basic need and only when it's met can people thrive.

The Solution

Until now, a nourishing, whole foods diet has seemed out of reach for the poor. That's because we've come to see food as a cost and healthy food as a luxury.

But through Life Gardens, communities including refugees, prisons, schools, HIV groups and churches can grow health. Thrive trains and equips people to grow an abundance of healthy, organic, disease-fighting foods and medicinal plants.

These projects are called Life Gardens because growing health is the first step to a thriving life.

The Thrive model works anywhere there are:

• 100 square feet of soil (the size of a standard living room)
• 6 hours of daily sunlight
• Scarce rainfall (500 mm / 20 inches a year)

It's based on the best organic growing methods, nutritional research and an education-first approach.

About Thrive

Thrive is a worldwide not-for-profit based in North America operating out of East Africa, South Africa and India, putting nutritional security - not just food security - in the hands of the poor so they can improve their lives.

Thrive empowers the poor to be self-sufficient, starting with nutrition. When people can take health into their own hands, they have new dignity and pride. Nutritional security also gives them hope for a better future without the constant burden of disease.

Vision & Mission

By 2025, Thrive will empower 1 million people in the developing world to lead healthy and sustainable lives by training them to grow nutritious and income-generating whole foods.

When people have everything they need to grow healthy, disease-fighting foods, they have the foundation for reaching their fullest potential.