JEFFERSON KNIGHT'S CREATIVE PORTFOLIO
How Latter-day Saint Charities and Muslim Aid have built 2,720 greenhouses in Bosnia & Herzegovina (and counting)
January 2023
A well-known saying goes, “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” Latter-day Saint Charities, the humanitarian arm of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has struck gold at doing just that in Bosnia & Herzegovina in their ongoing collaboration with Muslim Aid—the greenhouse project.
Teaching a man to fish, so to speak, is about more than just maximizing the efficiency of a welfare program so its beneficiaries don’t use it for longer than they need. It’s about giving those in need the independence and personal satisfaction that they desire and deserve. Since the beginning of the 21st century in Bosnia & Herzegovina, unfortunately, as much as 31% of the unemployed population looking to find this independence through honest work have been unable to find it.
That is why, in 2014, when that unemployment rate was still as uncomfortably high as 27%, Latter-day Saint Charities determined that its efforts to do the most good among the greatest number would be most effective alongside those of longtime reputable charity Muslim Aid, and that’s when the greenhouse project began.
Why greenhouses, one might ask? By sheltering crops from the Bosnian weather, greenhouses triple the length of the Bosnian growing season AND double the yield of the plants growing inside them, effectively acting as a 6x multiplier of the opportunity that exists in farming, allowing families both to feed themselves and sell their excess, and the greenhouses are not given away without giving beneficiaries the best chance to succeed with them. Each individual or family fortunate enough to receive a greenhouse also receives an in-person training from a trained agronomist, seeds and seedlings for their first year of production, and regular follow-ups.
To give a greenhouse and the associated trainings necessary for recipients to take full advantage, rather than just offering food itself, is to truly give a gift that keeps on giving, and that it certainly has been, with 90% of greenhouses received five or more years ago still in operation.
It’s been just that, too, for 50-year-old Elkaz Husein, who alongside his wife (pictured above) earned 1,200 KM last year in the sale of their excess peppers and tomatoes. While Elkaz had previously struggled to find work due to his refugee status and difficulties with mental illness, he now enjoys greater self-sufficiency. This year, he and his wife are planting strawberries in the hope of being even more profitable.
For 34-year-old Haris Alajbegović (pictured below), the greenhouse project has offered the peace of mind that he will have the healthy food to feed his two sons and parents, free from the use of pesticides. “That,” he says, “has no price.”
What began as a humble contribution of 20 greenhouses in 2014 has grown into a massive effort that has co-financed some 2,720 greenhouses, contributing, at least in some small way, to the fact that unemployment in Bosnia & Herzegovina has dropped consistently every single year since 2015, from 28% to its present 15%, and like the plants that lie under the greenhouses’ rooves, there is nothing stopping this project from continuing to grow.
