By Robyn Love | Project Leader
Hello Gardeners!
We are nearing the end of the year and celebrating the great work we supported with our partners around the world. One of those projects was with Sustainable Community Initiative for Empowerment (SCINE) in Kampala, Uganda. This year, we partnered to launch the Grow City program in the Makindye division to improve food security for school children through urban gardening in slum communities.
The program completed several activities over the last year:
Students from four schools created vegetable gardens at their schools. The students participated in all steps of garden creation from planting the seedlings and caring for the plants, through to harvesting and eating the vegetables. The students learned about climate-smart urban agriculture both in the classroom and through hand-on learning in the garden. They were also given an Urban Farmers' Guide manual to supplement their learning. The gardens will continue to be maintained by each school’s urban farmers club and the schools will continue to be supported with seedlings and extension services for continued learning.
In May, 25 young people visited the Kampala Capital City Authority’s (KCCA) urban farm in Kyanja. The activity aimed to train the participants about different methods and structures for urban gardening, including tower gardens, raised beds, greenhouses, food towers, pavement gardens, and polyethylene mat gardens. They also learned about growing spices, reducing agricultural waste, and creating agricultural fertilizers using millipedes. The participants enjoyed this learning session, which enabled them to think more broadly about the possibilities of urban gardening and holistic agricultural designs.
A demonstration garden was also created for practical learning about urban agriculture. Every two weeks, vegetables were harvested together with community members and given to 25 households at no cost to build their nutrition and food security. This time was also used to train participants about urban farming so that they could utilize their small available spaces to create their own home gardens. This garden will also be used as a location to conduct future training and workshops for community leaders and teachers to strengthen their skills in urban gardening and encourage the creation of home gardens in the community.
As one student at the demonstration garden said: “I have always admired planting vegetables using different planters but had no idea how to start. With this training on urban farming, I plan to start a small garden around our home.” Head girl at Emen Memorial School, using the demonstration garden.
If you are interested in supporting this program further, then please consider donating on Giving Tuesday, November 28. On this day, GlobalGiving is matching donations with $1,200.000 of available funds. This is a great day to donate and increase the impact of your donation dollars.
If you have any questions about any of our programs, then please do not hesitate to reach out. We would love to hear from you!
Happy Gardening,
Robyn
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