Mass Planting Day

Vertical Gardening in an Urban Slum

Empowers Women through Food Security

As a follow up to our first vertical gardening day, which Tim Bannister had lead on June 18th, the women of Iftin completed a refresher workshop today facilitated by Mr. Stanslous Akoi of the Solidarites organization.

Since June, seventeen women from the original training day have been committed to caring for the six test gardens and finding suitable places in their own homes to build more gardens. These women were joined today by another thirteen ladies who participated in the training.

Aaron getting some help in unloading bags of manure, soil and stone for today's mass planting.

The stones alone were a big job to carry.

But everyone got involved!

Mr. Josephat Oduor assisting the Iftin ladies in building a sample vertical garden in a used feed sack.

All you need to build a garden like this is:
a sack, soil, manure, stones, seeds/seedlings,
and finally the most difficult ingredient
... water.

The women broke up into several groups to go and find the water needed to build a sample garden. With the current drought conditions in Kenya, Nairobi is under severe water rationing: Like everyone living in Nairobi, the people of Eastleigh receive water only once a week. Storing enough water to make due until the next week's rationing is extremely difficult if not impossible for most people.

Once a vertical garden is built, a family can water it using waste kitchen water and even washing water. We are planting gardens within the community at this time in hopes that the October short rains will come to Eastleigh. In answer to our prayers, we did receive a rain shower this evening -- we hope that this is a sign of more to come!

Members of the Iftin women's group

very proud of their vertical garden.

A 50 kg maize sack like this one can support 25 seedlings along the sides and on top. Three sacks like this will provide a family a regular source of Sukumawiki (Kale), spinach, beans, tomatoes, onions and any number of other fruits and vegetables. Ten sacks like this will provide a family a steady source of income!

A seedbed produces a new harvest of seedlings for planting each month. The women in the program are then able to plant and care for the seedlings in their homes. Crops like Sukuma and Spinach are able to be harvested every 3 to 4 weeks.

Iftin ladies preparing bags of supplies

to carry back to their homes.

Women gathering stones for their vertical gardens

(A column of stone built through the centre of

each garden sack is crucial for evenly irrigating

a vertical garden. Without a properly build stone

core a vertical garden will fail).

The great highlight of our day was seeing

the ladies working together to carry the

supplies to their homes.

This young girl quietly listened to the instruction times and watched the entire demonstration. Off to the side, she along with a few other girls, gathered some supplies and began to build there own test garden. When the training day was complete, she had already assembled her supply bags and began to drag them back to where she lived.

Please pray for these women as they struggle to find ways to better care and provide for their families. We hope that in some small way that this program will make a lasting impact upon their lives.