Veggie gardens brings independent living
'AMCARE didn’t want to create dependency, we wanted to teach these children the skill of working towards a goal,” explains Marihet.
ALBERTON – Teaching young children to work towards independent living is one of the important goals of the AMCARE OVC Vegetable Garden Project in our neighbouring townships.
With a recent financial donation from Joy Global specifically to further grow and develop this project, AMCARE is now in a position to take this project to a new level whereby the OVC’s (Orphaned Vulnerable Children) are able to generate an income for themselves and ensure the supply of fresh vegetables to their own homes.
Says Marihet Infantino, Social Work Manager at AMCARE in New Market Park: “We currently work with 20 OVC’s in Eden Park West. These children are in homes where one or both parents have passed away. They are limited in their resources due to circumstances, thus limiting their skills and knowledge leaving them vulnerable to the system.
“AMCARE didn’t want to create dependency, we wanted to teach these children the skill of working towards a goal,” explains Marihet. AMCARE therefore introduced a grading and reward system for the vegetable gardens. A Red Flag garden indicates not satisfactory progress and the child will be mentored, trained and encouraged through the provision of basic gardening tools to help them towards the next level.
A White Flag garden shows satisfactory progress and this child will continue to receive mentoring and capacity building and provided with additional gardening equipment. A Green Flag garden is excellent and an overall achievement for each child. The children in all instances will be working toward a sustainable garden and rewarded with a vegetable tunnel system.
All the children will be provided with a started gardening kit, including the basic hand tools and seasonal seeds, additional to this all the children’s gardens will be fenced in to protect it against theft and roaming animals. Gardens will be assessed on a regular basis by the AMCARE team to ensure that all the children obtain excellence in the gardening project.
