First of Two Parts
Inside the Hagadera Refugee Camp located in Dadaab, eastern Kenya sits Mariam’s kitchen garden.
This camp of semi-permanent corrugated metal houses and canvas tents has been her home for the last 19 years. She came here at 34 years old due to political unrest in her home country of Somalia, and she has never known any other place since.
Over the years, she has worked hard to make it home. This garden was a big part of that, but it was also important for providing nutritious and diverse produce for her family of seven.
Supporting kitchen gardens in the Dadaab camp was a part of the European Union (EU)-funded Refugee Settlement Project implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in collaboration with other agencies of the United Nations.
While 2 000 refugee and host communities in Dadaab were supported to establish gardens through this project, Mariam’s garden stands out in the camp. With seeds provided by FAO, she grows spinach, kale–commonly known as Sukuma Wiki–black nightshade, cowpeas, amaranth and jute mallow.
Both the quantity and quality of these crops far surpass others, which is why fellow community members come to learn from her. Some also ask for a share of her vegetables to feed their families.
“This has become the norm; women come here to see and admire my kitchen. I also share the vegetables with some of them, although most are just normally mesmerized as they had never thought that such green kitchen gardens could exist in Dadaab. They have now mustered up the courage to go set up their gardens,” Mariam explains.
Given that Dadaab is predominantly dry, with sandy soils and scarce water resources, it is a formidable challenge.
However, FAO provided training to produce crops within these conditions. Mariam, too, had to put in extra effort to maintain the green garden thriving today.
Her green thumb is assisted by regular visits from FAO’s extension service providers, who monitor her crops’ progress.
“After the training, I was informed that the vegetables require loam soil [fertile soil]. Here it is mostly sandy, and I had to use a donkey-pulled cart to get the soil from far, an hour-long journey,” Mariam noted. “But I knew it was going to yield well, and now here I am with the results you can see,” she continued.(To be continued)
FAO News
