Our first school garden

This initiative began to take shape in March of this year, in the middle of the transition to the Montessori methodology technique, when we began to visualise an open air space, as a first step for our kids to begin to create a harmonious and caring relationship with the environment.

So the Yspaniola team set about researching how best to care for a garden, and which organisations in the area could support the project. This effort paid off and we received some seedlings and seeds from the Environment Department.

Then, during the month of May, Yale Dominican Students Association, as part of their service trip, worked with the children in the garden, planting the seedlings that were donated. It was a pleasant experience to see how the students and the pre-school children came together to explain to them the importance of taking care of the environment.

After almost three months, the plants in the garden have started to grow, but also the motivation of the teachers and the children to take care of the garden and other spaces around the preschool has grown too. Even in the summer camp that ended on July 9th, the children worked on different activities such as planting and watering other nearby spaces, making games out of waste material, as well as reading stories and making banners and drawings.

This project encourages us to continue working for a more dignified, cleaner and healthier environment for all the inhabitants of Batey Libertad. Although we did not reach our goal, with the contributions received we will be able to maintain these spaces, as well as encourage the parents who visit us to create their own gardens in the community.

Links:

• http://www.yspaniola.org