Community Garden in the Sher Shah Colony

Creation of new green areas, Knowledge creation and awareness raising

The project aimed to: - Build or restore a sense of community spirit, by sharing the joy of gardening with the local community; - Provide a means of local/indigenous food production, as well as a means of income generation to the community, sustaining therefore self-sufficiency, community empowerment and involvement - Promote healthy lifestyles and cleaner environments and develop sustainable communities through a community garden program. - Ensure the long-term continuity of this project by providing appropriate training at both public and private-sector schools. (1, 2, 3, 6)

The community garden pilot project in Government Girls High School Sher Shah Colony was a two-month initiative, implemented between October 13 and December 8, 2020. The project aimed to involve 70 students and 10 teachers from grades 7 to 10 through a series of eight workshops and it was designed to train teachers to carry out the training themselves in the future without assistance from the IAC faculty and other volunteers. (1,2,3). The training sessions were provided by Dr Fouzia Naz from Gardening from All (2,3). The introductory workshop focused on the benefits and importance of community gardens to the students. The representatives of IAC and Gardening for All discussed the possible space for carrying out the community garden project in the school and selected the possible site for this purpose (4). The main topic for the second workshop was nutrition and composting where students also participated by asking questions and contributing to discussions which made the classroom session informative. The initial planning for land preparation of the community garden was also carried out in the send training (5). The other workshops cover topics related to health and nutrition and the benefits of consuming home-grown produce, the importance of organic food, the economic benefits of growing vegetables as a community, the types of vegetables to grow as per season, methods of preparing planting beds, soil mixes and seed and seedling planting (2,3,5). Mrs Zebun Nisa, the school principal, provided active support in creating raised beds for the community garden project (6). The students planted multiple vegetable seeds in their dedicated spaces, including fenugreek, turnip, potato, cabbage, mint, and cauliflower (6, 10). The trainers also taught the ideal way of planting, watering and throwing seeds in the beds for efficient results (6).

• Public sector institution (e.g. school or hospital)
• Non-government organisation/Civil Society
• Citizens or community groups
• Young people and children