El Alto is a former slum area in Bolivia’s capital city La Paz and is located at an altitude of 4.000 meters. It is not only one of the poorest cities in Latin America, but also one of the fastest growing cities worldwide. From its more than one million inhabitants around half is younger than 19 years old. The main part of the population works in the informal sector and can barely read or write. Only few people achieve an income of more than 200 Dollars monthly. Especially children suffer from this situation and the widespread malnutrition. The local government cannot keep up with the developments and is incapable of dealing with the situation. In order to take care of daily issues in residential areas, local families have organised themselves in almost 600 community organisations. The FOCAPACI project for self-sustaining agriculture focuses on these families and especially on the women.

In 2011, the project is presented in several of El Alto’s citizen parliaments and hundreds of women manifest their interest in the project. They organise themselves in producers’ associations of 10 to 15 women. In these groups the women discuss weekly activities and produce bricks for building floors and walls of the greenhouses. Focapaci reimburses half of the costs and constructs the translucent roofs. The women receive training in cultivation of around 20 different types of vegetables and fruits as well as in livestock breeding of chickens and guinea pigs. In this way, they grow lettuce, carrots and cabbage in their greenhouse beds, strawberries along the walls as well as herbs and peppers in old plastic bottles used as pots. The surplus is sold on local markets or delivered to kindergartens. For the women of El Alto this means a huge challenge, as they have to convince people through intensive discussions to pay an increased amount for the healthier products. Additionally, they are not used to orient their production towards a sales market.

The project is being continued with the objective to build additional greenhouses at schools. Thereby, it seeks to increase children’s and inhabitants’ conscience of the environment and its protection as well as a healthy diet and to encourage them to cultivate in their backyards. Provided that a sufficient amount of donations from Europe and the U.S. is being received, an additional educational farm for adolescents will be constructed. Moreover, the women from El Alto, together with their community organisations and supported by Focapaci, participate in urban development processes and advocate the formalisation of their fast growing informal settlements. They are increasingly starting to be more independent and autonomous.