Growing with Dignity
Having a garden allows the Dignity for Children Foundation to teach important life lessons.
THE Dignity Kitchen Garden is growing strong, and is currently being maintained by students from the Dignity for Children Foundation.
Formed in 1998 by Reverend Elisha Satvinder and his wife Petrina, the foundation’s vision is to empower underprivileged children to break the cycle of poverty through quality education, allowing them to positively transform their lives and the lives of the community around them.
Teacher Benjamin Yap leads an urban gardening class, comprising about 10 students aged 15 to 18. They meet up twice a week to maintain the garden’s general upkeep. This includes watering, spraying natural pest repellent, and cleaning the garden, especially if there has been any damage by the neighbourhood cows or dogs.
The students also created a small nursery in the garden in between the first and second digs, as well as an “experimental bed” to try growing new plants.
“We have a roster in place for watering. Prior to the rainy season it was very hot daily, so in the morning one group would go, and in the afternoon, another group would go. We had students of all ages coming. Upper secondary, lower, primary, even toddlers came to help out,” Yap says. “The teachers even brought them tiny watering cans, it was so cute.”
Yap says the urban gardening sessions are useful for students as it teaches them how to grow their own food.
Many of his students are city people, he says, who don’t know the names of various plants and vegetables, and these sessions help educate them.
“Beyond that, they also learn responsibility. If something goes wrong with the plants, they know it’s because someone has not done something properly. They learn to care for their garden,” Yap says.
Yap says the Dignity Kitchen Garden is only the first phase of their urban gardening planning. The foundation has also experimented with rooftop gardening at another of its centres.
“We’ve got plans to set up another garden in another plot of land, which will be Phase 2. We want this to be a community place, so there are ideas of bringing in a container to set up something like a tree house,” he says.
As for the present Dignity Kitchen Garden, it will continue to be nurtured.
A “Harvest Party” was recently held there, with the community coming together to enjoy the literal fruits of their labour.
More “garden royongs” will definitely be planned in future; in the meantime, anyone is welcome to help the garden grow.
“People can come and just hang out, and help from time to time. The students aren’t always there, they come only twice a week.
“There’s no one here on the weekends. So if there are people living nearby, and they have the time, they can come by and help, especially if they don’t have a garden of their own,” Yap says.
“It’s not just our garden, even though we started it. As Reverend Elisha says, it’s all about community. So people can come by to help if they can.”