This project is a continuation of the partnership started in 2016 (with the project “Cultivando la Esperanza: for a Better Quality of Life for the Women and Children of Cerro Navia”) with an association of families from the municipality of Cerro Navia de Santiago de Chile and the Town Hall of this municipality, where around 130,000 people live among the poorest in the country.

The origins of Cerro Navia are characterized by the unplanned growth from 1950 of the whole of Santiago, the emergence of housing areas in the outskirts of the city arising in the occupation of land, purchases of large areas by workers’ cooperatives, as well as forced displacement. At the official birth by decree of the municipality of Cerro Navia in 1981, the existing infrastructure and services were not adequate to cope with the constant increase in population and the town was already stigmatized due to its precarious living conditions. The process of occupying sites and land involves a high degree of mobilization and organization of homeless people who are fighting for the right to housing and who transform temporary camps into permanent resistance sites. Among the housing strategies, households resort to accommodation practices with relatives (persons accommodated or “allegados”) which was reinforced under the military dictatorship (1973-1990). The importance of solidarity is manifested in the committees of “allegados”, such as the Committee of Allegados Los Conquistadores, who are a vital force in the community organization of Cerro Navia and who maintain the pressure for the fight for access to land and property. For example, after ten years of legal proceedings, Chile passed an agreement of occupied and owned property titles and the decontamination of land. Women in the community played a key role in advancing housing rights and people’s access to basic services.

However today, Cerro Navia faces a situation of overcrowding and poverty. Its population lacks access to healthy and fresh food. In addition, the lack of green spaces within the area is conducive to the creation of heat islands. In 2016, several town communities such as, Comité des Allegados Los Conquistadores as well as the town hall of Cerro Navia wanted to promote urban agriculture to revitalize this neighborhood that was built in a space without vegetation. The first phase launched in 2018 as part of a QSF program which brought together around 20 low-income families around a collective garden and various training and mobilization activities. The first phase received a favourable reception by the community, which motivated a second phase carried out in collaboration with a municipal school and women leaders from the committee of Mujeres las Calas. Although still implemented as part of the QSF program, this project targets 35 of the poorest women in Cerro Navia. Single mothers or domestic workers, these women between the ages of twenty and seventy are at the heart of community life in this town. Because of their struggles that they have faced over the years, these women have successfully petitioned the government to construct subsidized housing, where they have lived since 2017. Furthermore, the creation of school vegetable gardens and family gardens will contribute to the reduction of heat islands and to the greening of the town. This will also raise awareness among primary age children of the importance of supporting the creation of healthy and sustainable urban environments and local agriculture and, more generally, will improve the well-being of the inhabitants of the district. Initially, a group of young people from Quebec worked with the women’s committees and the targeted municipal school in the development of the vegetable gardens and the organization of training and education activities on urban agriculture in hopes of encouraging more similar initiatives in the district. Thereafter, a participant from the municipality of Cerro Navia who has benefitted from the QSF program and who has had the opportunity to acquire knowledge, skills and concrete experience in urban agriculture will present useful skills and knowledge regarding the initiative in their neighborhood to groups in Montreal.