Reduce, reuse and recycle. This slogan or a variance of the same, is the practice of working towards reducing how much waste we create, while reusing what we can and then recycling what we can’t. The concept is by no means a recent phenomenon and is also global in scope. In the Mathare slum, the necessity of frugality due to scarcity of resources means second hand clothes are the norm, old machinery is often adapted in a makeshift way for multiple tasks, and many day to day items such as single use plastic bottles and other containers are reused several times for multiple purposes before being thrown away.
Recently, Mr. Hosea Kinaro, our 7th Grade Agriculture teacher, led our students in a class project which included creating a suspended frame garden with easily available materials such as single use plastic bottles, simple ropes and nails. This class project made practical the principles of reducing waste, while reusing resources and contributing to the flourishing of people through the provision of sustainably farmed fresh food, especially for those living in urban areas.
As we have updated in the past, our school already has a thriving Vertical Garden, in which we grow healthy spinach that supplements our feeding program. For this project, our 7th graders planted tomatoes and onions, adding to the food we grow in our small school compound. John, our school gardener, assisted our young farmers, explaining the most effective practices to maintain their crops and increase their harvest.
When you give to eduKenya, you enable us to provide a practical education, through which our learners gain valuable experience in sustainable farming using readily available resources. Opportunities for experiential learning mean that by the time our students complete their elementary education, they are equipped to grow their own food in an urban environment, using readily available materials at minimal cost.
Would you consider making a special summer gift today to enable us to continue to make this kind of experiential learning available to the children of Mathare?