Permaculture garden empowers deaf pupils
Some pupils have started their own gardens at home.
GREEN fingers abound at the Durban School for the Hearing Impaired in Toti, as it celebrated the success of a permaculture garden on World Environment Day on Thursday, 5 June.
A R100,000 donation from Masimo Chemicals Logistics in 2013 kickstarted the project in collaboration with Food and Trees for Africa, which provided training and support for 20 pupils and six staff members.
Empowerment of the deaf has been a priority at the school, as pupils are accommodated in all possible curriculum programmes. The project initially started with a small permaculture garden in 2012, which has grown due to the generous donation.
To gain sufficient knowledge to efficiently run the garden, pupils and teachers attended workshops to gain practical and theoretical knowledge.
“The objectives of the project included developing gardening skills among pupils, raising environmental awareness, promoting food security and encouraging permaculture within the community,” said Joanne Carty of Food and Trees for Africa. It also focused on providing sufficient produce to supplement the school’s feeding scheme, the introduction of fruit and vegetables more frequently within the diets of pupils, teachers and the community.
Pupils have greatly benefitted and some have started their own gardens at home and shared their knowledge with the community.
The school now boasts a variety of fruit trees and vegetables. Besides supplementing its feeding scheme, value-added products such as dried herbs are being sold. The permaculture garden has been a blessing to the school, as pupils and teachers have been empowered and have acquired new skills to sustain their lives.
