Two of the Solar powered water systems also supply water to village Community Gardens. These Gardens offer the whole village the opportunity to farm vegetables’ throughout the year which will directly improve the nutritional status of the whole village but also allow for surplus vegetables’ to be sold by the woman so they can earn a little money to pay for school fees and food that can not be bartered for.
Life in these rural villages is extremely harsh, it rains only once during the year between late June to early October. For the rest of the year it is dry so nothing can grow. Our Community Gardens each have 6 large reservoirs, each reservoir is filled by a tap supplied by the solar system. The woman can then fill their buckets and water the vegetables’ they are growing. This is a lifeline for these villages and greatly improves both nutrition and livelihoods.
Each Garden is securely fenced so the wandering animals can not eat the growing produce.
Funds are in urgent need for us to continue to build community gardens as a lifeline to these rural villages. Ongoing funding is also needed for the purchase of fertiliser, garden tools and seeds on an ongoing basis.
Training
As these villages have never had a community garden before, we work along side the villagers to train them on how to make their vegetable beds and how to water, weed and take care of the gardens in a safe manner.
This is a great way for Volunteers to get involved in village life.
Training takes a few weeks before work starts on the gardens and then is a regular intervention by the GLOVE Project team.