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Home » 10.000 Orti in Africa » Faraja School Garden

Faraja School Garden

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Tanzania

Arusha

Faraja Vocational Training Center was established by Martina Siara and Simon Siara to empower the vulnerable young girls under 18. The Center trains the young mothers on different vocational skills such as cookery and tailoring, entrepreneurship skills on starting and running their own business, health education, mathematics, English and computer classes.It accommodates 30 young mothers and 20 victims of human trafficking. In April 2007 Martina and Simon decided to use a piece of their inherited land to create a 1 acre garden with their students. In the garden they grow maize, beans, amaranth, night shade, cucumbers, cassava and bananas eaten by the students during their daily meals. Extra vegetables are sold to the nearby community members the obtained revenues from sales are used to purchase the required ingredients for cookery classes. They want to diversify the varieties by increasing the number of traditional crops, growing medicinal plants and fruit trees in the garden. The garden is situated on flat land 50 meters from Mandela road and ten km from Arusha’s city center. The next steps to take to develop the garden include purchasing a pump to draw water for irrigation from the already constructed bore hole and the organization of training sessions on organic gardening.

Area
Mandela road, Arusha

Coordinator
Martina Siara

Products

  • Chinese spinach (A. dubius)
  • Banana
  • Bean
  • Maize
  • Cucumber
  • Cassava
  • Black nightshade leaves

Slow Food in Tanzania

Slow Food has been developing activities in Tanzania since 2004, when over 20 delegates from the country participated in the first Terra Madre event in Turin, Italy. Now local Slow Food groups are promoting good, clean and fair food across the country, primarily in the north (Kilimanjaro, Meru and Arusha), along the coast (Dar es Salaam region) and in the central-east (Morogoro, Dodoma and Singida). The largest country along Africa’s eastern coast, Tanzania experimented with “Ujamaa” socialism under President Julius Nyerere, one of Africa’s most enlightened 20th-century politicians, who led the country after independence in 1961. Much was invested into education and literary programs, community development and the agricultural sector. Positive effects, such as a lively and pervasive entrepreneurial spirit, can still be seen in this relatively stable country, despite the devastating spread of HIV, which has laid waste to multiple generations and left thousands of orphans, profoundly changing family and social structures. Women, particularly those who are now elderly, are confident and educated, and can act as agents of important change at a socio-political level and as the driving force behind local economies. The initiatives carried out by the Slow Food network to create awareness, achieve food sovereignty and improve everyday nutrition include the safeguarding of traditional beekeeping, the rediscovery of wild vegetables and herbs, the mapping of local banana varieties, the integration of food-growing into school programs, the spread of agroecological practices to improve farmers’ resilience and autonomy and the valuing of the role of young people in training and awareness-raising activities. The major challenges to be addressed are linked to the lack of availability of native seeds and organic inputs, thanks to government policies that favor industrial agriculture and allow foreign investors to indiscriminately take over arable land. In January 2017, the Tanzanian government passed a law that gives Western agribusiness investors faster and better access to agricultural land and strong protection of intellectual property rights, in exchange for development aid. Under this new law Tanzanian farmers are subject to a minimum jail term of 12 years and a fine of over €200 if they sell seeds that are not certified.

Garden Informations

Type:School Garden
Surface in m2:4046
People involved:52
Slow Food Convivium:Lishe Convivium
Coordinator:Helen Tibandebage Nguya
Sibling with:Table for Two International

Photos

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