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Pre-school farm provides children’s meals

The farming project at A Escolinha de Boa Esperanca Pre-School farm is doing great and we are currently harvesting lots of cabbages, tomatoes and carrots to supplement the children’s diets. Eventually we want to expand the farm so that we can sell excess produce to the local lodges. The Pre-School farm can then generate its own income and be self-sufficient. This is how it all began:

The scrub land surrounding the school had to be cleared. When the land was ready, beds were made and covered in horse dung (from a local horse safari company). The seeds were first planted in nursery beds before moving to the bigger beds.

Nelson who has been maintaining the farm, uses the water pump and a pipe to irrigate the vegetable beds. The water is pumped from the water pump through a long pipe and collected in buckets. Watering cans are then used to water the plants.

We are growing tomatoes, carrots, cabbages, onions, lettuce, cabbage, eggplant, peanuts and casava (for matapa). In addition we have lots of fruit trees; papaya, mango and lemons.

Once the vegetables are ripe they are collected, ready to be used. The volunteers then help to prepare the cabbage, carrots and tomatoes to supplement the children’s rice for their lunch every day.