Community Garden

“Growing ginger helped me to pay school fees,” David tells me. David is from Lira, Northern Uganda, where he grew up in a family of eight children. His father is not a farmer; he is a pastor. David learned how to grow ginger and this skill helped him and his family to continue their education.

 Now he is a student in senior six at Destiny’s Christian High School where two weeks ago he initiated a garden project that engages students in organic agriculture. The garden is a part of a bigger Skills Program that helps students to acquire various skills from bakery to agriculture. The school’s headmaster believes that these simple skills will help his students to avoid poverty and unemployment: “If you know how to grow crops, bake or make soap, you will always have some food for yourself and your family.”

 The school librarian, Olivia, coordinates this ambitious project. She successfully engages and educates students about gardening despite not having a background in agriculture. Olivia gained her gardening knowledge at Shanti’s Gardening and Nutrition workshops. She now knows about the fertility of various soils, life-terms of different crops, and how to make an organic pesticide along with many other things. 

 So far, she attended two workshops: the June workshop Medical Herbs, Types of Soils and Crops and July workshop Organic Pesticide and Box Gardens. Our Gardener Kato and Nutritionist Ritah have already conducted seven workshops that have been attended by over one hundred and seventy community members, new mothers, and pregnant women. The information taught during workshops was completely new to Olivia, just like 78% of our other attendees. She is now eager to share her new knowledge with students.

 David and Olivia work side by side: she spreads awareness about organic agriculture, and he works hard to maintain the garden and inspires his fellow-students. Olivia deeply admires David’s passion for gardening: “He loves our garden so much, and takes care of it with all his heart.”

 David hopes to expand the school garden to diversify students’ diet that mainly consists of posho and a small portion of beans. While beans are a rich source of protein, posho that is usually the biggest part of the meal has little nutritional value. In the long-run, David wants to become an agriculturalist, and Olivia wants to learn more about gardening with the goal of involve more students.

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Over the past few months, the Shanti grounds have been bustling with new developments. Planting and workshops have begun in our community demonstration garden, and our new round hut is completed and being put to good use.

Our gardener and groundskeeper, Kato, has planted kale, spinach, garlic, beans, eggplant, and many other vegetables in our new community demonstration garden. A number of these plants are not commonly found in the Luwero district despite being easy to grow in the climate. One of the goals of the new garden to expose the community to new plants that will help in diversifying their diets, and most importantly making up for dietary deficiencies in pregnancy. We even managed to get our hands on seeds for the elusive orange sweet potato or “Vitamin Potato” as it is called here. Sweet potatoes are a staple in the Ugandan diet, but the most common variety is the white sweet potato, which has significantly less nutritional value than the orange variety.

In a recent workshop delivered by Kato and Ritah, our nutritionist, pregnant women and new mothers learned about the importance of dietary diversity. Ritah began by teaching the women about the most common nutritional deficiencies among pregnant women in Uganda including Folic Acid, Iron, Calcium, and Vitamin A. Ritah then counseled workshop participants on locally available and affordable foods they can incorporate into their diets in order to prevent nutritional deficiencies. After having some healthy vitamin A packed carrot sticks, Kato showed the women around our demonstration garden and advised them on how to successfully plant and grow the crops previously discussed by Ritah. This workshop method is intended to help women learn how they can make small changes at home that will result in much healthier pregnancies and babies. 

Kato, our all-star gardener is currently on an exciting adventure. He has traveled to Kamuli to attend an internationally recognized Permaculture Design Course. Over the course of two weeks, he will receive 80 hours of practical training in ecological design. Once completed, Kato will return to Shanti with fresh new ideas and perspectives on how to ensure all of our gardening and workshops are as environmentally friendly and sustainable as possible. He is excited to not only implement his knowledge at Shanti, but teach the community as well.