Women and simplified hydroponics: community gardening as a way of emancipation in Trujillo, Peru.

In the suburbs of Latin American cities, living conditions are affected by severe poverty and malnutrition. Slums are inhabited by immigrants from rural areas, and the presence of social network is extremely limited, which leaves families or individuals on their own to struggle for life. In these conditions, most disadvantaged people are therefore women, children and elder. The formation of women groups, both on a volunteer basis than with the help of governmental institutions and/or NGOs, is a phenomena widely spread in Peru, both with the aims of improving child nutrition (by reducing the cost of the meal) than providing the service of a nursery for the mothers that work during the day. In Trujillo, in the northern Peru, this associations, called Clubes de Madres, are present in the suburbs of the cities and, between 2002 and 2004 five Clubes have participated in an horticultural project aimed at introducing soilless farming both for the improvement of the child diet than for the creation of income (both by the selling of the products and by the reduction of the meal costs). In this study, the results of a survey carried out in 2004 are shown, with a description of the results of gardening for the beneficiaries.