Rural garden teaches pupils self-sufficiency

IN EARLIER days it was common practice for families to have a kitchen garden. Even schools used to have their own vegetable gardens.

This practice might be revived again, with school children in the Omusati Region being able to visit an existing family garden to gain first-hand experience.
The Tukwafeni Garden Project and Training Centre at Olupito, 5 kilometres west of Okalongo in Omusati, gives groups the opportunity to see what is possible in a rural village and learn from the experience of an incredible family garden that has been in existence for 40 years.
An adjacent community garden has just been started. It grows carrots, onions, broccoli, sweet potato, chillies, cabbage, tomatoes, passion fruit, custard apples, apples, oranges, eggplant, guava, papaya, marula, butternuts, watermelon, mango, mulberry, banana, cassava, sugar cane and lemon trees. This is in addition to traditional foods such as mahangu, maize, beans and spinach.
Just before schools closed last year, approximately 60 pupils of Grade Six agriculture classes at the Mupewa Primary School at Oshikuku and four teachers visited the garden.
They learnt about new plants and watering techniques. Prisku Hitilasha, the head gardener, said practical experience was the best, according to a US Peace Corps volunteer.
‘Only so much can be learned in a classroom environment, but to truly gain an understanding of what or how things really are one must step outside the classroom and explore and get hands-on experience,’ said Allison West, a US Peace Corps Volunteer teaching at Uukwiyoongwe.
The Peace Corps will facilitate information to be sent soon through the Ministry of Education to local schools and to be distributed to local non-governmental and community-based organisations.
‘Modest admission fees will be charged per group, funds which will go back into the project,’ said West.