BWB is partnering with Prentiss Darden on an inspiring project in Gaborone, Botswana.  $700 will be used to reap the benefits of permaculture in an area lacking sustainable agriculture and healthy food consumption. 

Contact: acehardiman@gmail.com

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With this specific project, we endeavor to provide fresh, organic vegetables, herbs, and fruits to the school kitchen of the secondary school in the Maru a Pula community.  We have envisioned three phases for this project.  Above, I listed the general benefits of permaculture.  The benefits are what we seek to reap and so the goals of this specific project are to a) provide nutritious local organic produce to the students and faculty for school meals, b) provide the kids with a hands-on opportunity to experience growing your own vegetables, herbs, and fruits, c) decrease the school’s carbon footprint, and d) lower the cost of providing food for students and faculty.  Phase 1 is growing the garden at the school for consumption by the students and faculty.  Once we have successfully produced enough food to supply the school with nutritious local organic produce, we plan to produce enough to sell to the local community of Maru a Pula at a farm stand (phase

2).  After this is shown to be successful, our goal is to replicate the school-based community garden throughout Gaborone and neighboring towns through peer-to-peer education (phase 3).  The school-based community gardens can easily be replicated as community clinic-based gardens that provide food for patients with HIV/AIDS and offer workshops to teach people to grow their own at home. 

The garden, in phase 1, will begin May 23 and continue through mid-August, the end of term.  Ten students already have volunteered to participate.  In addition to the students, I am seeking three adult Batswana (people from Botswana) to work with me.  I have put the word out in the community and am confident I will find people who are interested to learn about permaculture and oversee the project with me.  I will be paying these people a stipend for their time and energy during this initial phase.  The patch of land to be cultivated is located on school grounds.  It is an overgrown garden used years before.  It is quite a large area with open, sunny spots adjacent to slightly forested bush areas.  We will use recycled water for irrigation.  We will conduct taste tests to show that fresh from the ground organic veggies DO taste better! I also plan to do visual projects with the kids such as weighing their waste before implementing compost and recycling and then afterwards, to show how individual contributions really can make a difference!