To sow is to heal: inside the Tierra Programme
School gardens that become home gardens — the story of the food sovereignty programme told by the people who live it.
In the rural schools of Pijao, the most eagerly awaited class of the week does not happen in a classroom: it happens in the garden.
The Tierra Programme today works with 560 children in 14 school gardens (figures as of May 2026). But the numbers are the small part of the story. The big part is what happens when a child carries the seed home: the school garden becomes a home garden, and food security becomes family autonomy.
Ligia Villamil, guardian of the El Patio nursery and keeper of medicinal plant knowledge, says it better than anyone: “I wanted to sow dignity. What many call ‘weeds’ are actually treasures.” Her nursery is also home to the Bonplandia Laboratory, and her knowledge of the territory’s plants is part of the programme’s invisible curriculum.
Hugo Murcia, head teacher of the La Mariela school — the institution with 12 rural campuses where the programme took root — sums up what it all means: “Thank you for dreaming our dreams. Today we sow hope, cultivate dignity and harvest a fairer, more sustainable future.”
The programme is part of the municipality’s School Environmental Project (PRAE), and the harvest projection for 2026 is around 750 kilos of food. But ask anyone who works in it, and the harvest that matters most cannot be weighed: you see it in the hands of a child who learned that the earth answers those who care for it.