Gardening With Children

One of the suggested projects for environment volunteers is working on a garden with local school children. What better way to help with the food security of a country then to teach the children how to grow nutritious fruits and vegetables?

Ready... Set.. Hoe!

This month I was finally able to start working with a school. I am not sure if I really got into it here on the blog (I don't know that I mentioned it much) but I was having A LOT of trouble finding a school that was interested in working with me. Some volunteers are partnered with schools as their host structures.. but that isn't the case for me.

As we know, things happen for a reason.. and while all my truly local school have been putting me off and brushing me aside.. I found a primary school that is very motivated and very excited about me working with them. This school is not in my village it is another village over, but I am very happy to be working with them. I don't mind traveling to them if it means I get to work with people who actually want me there.

I originally went to visit their school thinking (and only thinking) that it was an opportunity to do a forestry project. I was told that this school had a small man-made forest stand, and that they had contacted my office about wanting to protect this small forest. Unfortunately, by the time this message reached me.. and we made our way over to check it out.. a good portion of the trees had already been taken down. :-/ Seeing as the school had reached out, my supervisor and I took advantage of the opportunity and asked them if they would be interested in my help with creating a school garden.

Interestingly enough, the school had real interest, but not really in the garden. In a much bigger project. They want a garden, WITH ANIMALS (rabbits and maybe some chickens and goats as well). I am not going to say that I don't have any reservations over a primary school running a small farm, and to that point I told them that we are going to just start with the Garden and move forward from there. I figure if they are able to be motivated and work hard, and the garden is a success and the children show real interest... then we can talk about adding animals into the equation after their summer break. Luckily the school's Directors thought this was fair and agreed to my idea to start small and work towards the bigger project.

Building A Fence 

Things are just getting started, so there are no pretty greens growing yet. The location to for the garden is great, there is a close by water pump and plenty of space to expand if things go well this school year. For now are going to grow legumes, tomatoes, lettuce and hot peppers.. I am going to try to sneak in a little more variation if the Directors are ok with it. This week we cleared the field where we are placing the garden (there was a lot of trash and some big tree stumps).. and we built a fence to keep the goats out! FYI this group of 5 elementary school students cleared a big tree stump in less time than it would take most adult Americans.. using machetes and small hoes. Just saying.

Tree Stump Removal

I am looking forward to talking to the Directors about some other small projects I can do with them. I would love to do a tree planting for National Tree Day and maybe an environmentally conscious mural. (Since their original interest was of course protecting their trees.)

Z