Cape Town - The remarkable transformation could be straight out of a reality TV show. Taking a rubbish-infested piece of land and turning it into a designer food garden.
This community food garden project was launched in Salt River with the hopes of encouraging local people to beautify and conserve their environment.
The garden project was launched through the partnership of local and international organisations, including Rainbow Warriors International, Baz-Art, Unicef South Africa and Progress London.
The local community also played a vital role in making the gardening project a reality. Founder of UK-based NGO Progress London, Simon Ghartey was interviewed by local radio station, Cape Talk about the establishment of the garden.
The community garden in Salt River before and after it was turned into a designer food garden. The idea is to encourage local people to beautify and conserve their environment. Picture: Supplied
Ghartey told Cape Talk that the collaboration between the organisations was to redevelop a piece of land that hadn’t been touched for about 40 years.
“This land has been used as a dumping ground. We consulted with the local community to see if they would be interested in having a community fruit garden,” he told the station.
Ghartey said: “The community has an indigenous nature garden on one of three sections being worked on. It is being managed by a local community team. The community is a close-knit and a project like this would definitely be sustained by them.”
He told the radio station the
garden would serve as a pilot project which could be replicated in other parts of Salt River. It will also serve as a safe place for children to play.
To find out more about this project, email [email protected]