Green Hands Project
21 August 2017
3 organisations come together to build an edible school garden
In an initiative to foster green practices of gardening, composting and a love for nature, the Soroptimist International Club of Bangsar (SICB) forged a collaboration with social enterprise NGO, Eats, Shoots & Roots to transform fallow land in Sentul Convent Secondary School grounds into an edible garden.
Students from the Persatuan Kemahiran Hidup ( Living Skills Club), Persatuan Ekonomi Rumah Tangga (Home Science Club) & Persatuan Sains & Matematik (Science & Mathematic Club), supervised by their respective co-curricular teachers will be the ones managing these edible plots. All in all, a participation from 30 students, 10 teachers and support staff. Puan Haida Hamdan is the coordinator of the 3 school clubs.
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Puan Marzita Ahmad, the Acting Headmistress spoke of the value of integrating community gardening knowledge & practices tips, and aligning content into the co-curricular components. Besides equipping students with useful garden knowledge, they will be similarly exposed to elements of social enterprise (booking keeping & sale from harvests) and digital story telling (Instagram & Facebook). “We are indeed grateful to Soroptimist International Club of Bangsar for the opportunity of realising this vision eversince we first touched based in March 2017 ”.
Ms Pushpa Ratnam, President-elect of SICB, responded with enthusiasm, that this “Green Hands” project is one of the many community projects undertaken by the Club, which is aligned to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of which global Soroptimists Clubs are affiliated to.
“It matches our goal and mission of upifting & empowering women & girls to improve their knowledge & living skills, alleviate urban poverty whilst fostering volunteerism for community good”. Ms Ratnam hoped that this strong sense of purpose will generate positive traits of patience and sharing among the beneficiaries, to reflect well of SICB’s NGO citizenry efforts.
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The edible school garden comprise of leafy vegetables of kai lan, pak choy and Surinam spinach; thai basil, coriander and mint in the herbs category, fruit annuals as brinjal, okra, cili padi; roots as radish, pring onion and garlic chives, and a ginger garden of tumeric, Bentong ginger, bunga kantan and cekur. The fallow area near the canteen area and behind the school hall were the targeted areas for planting.
In addition, the school is also gifted with a worm composting bin to decompose kitchen waste into useful compost to be used for fertilising the soil in a back-to-nature approach. 2 training sessions and hands-on planting were held simultaneously for the Train-the Trainer supervising teachers, and the students under their wing.
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Sor Wei Ling, 17, a Form 5 student showed her enthusiasm at learning intricate details of hands-on planting of root herbs such as ginger & cekur. It complemented what she learnt during her Form 2 class of Kemahiran Hidup, and germination of seeds in Form 3.
Aliah Farhanah aged 13, from 1Mawar class, was excited to participate in mulching banana leaves sourced from the school’s vicinity, for the bed preparation of the lengkuas (galangal) and other vegetables that she and her 30 fellow students will plant.
Prior to the event, both students, teachers and the canteen staff were actively involved in gathering kitchen waste for composting, dried leaves and cut grass for their carbon content. Aspects of recycling – in a back to nature- approach were emphasized. Some of the teachers nursed the idea of building vertical gardens along the school walls. This bodes well for future collaboration with SICB & its partners.
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Soroptimist International Club of Bangsar, established in 1992, is one of the 13 clubs in Malaysia. As a community-based club, SICB has won accolades at both regional & international levels.
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For more details: Contact Doris Lim (012-2830959), Email: dorissllim2013@gmail.com or Puan Nor Haida Hamdan (016-37868510), Email: norhhamdan@yes.my
Sor Wei Peng – 17 “ I am so glad to learn how to plant well, and it adds onto the know how I learnt . during my Form 2 & 3 Living Skill classes on seed germination & general planting.”
Aliah Farhanah – 13, 1Mawar class. “ So happy that I know about mulching. Will be planting lengkuas (galangal) next – which I was told is a ‘cooling’ root herb.
Budget: RM4500 for this No-dig garden, planting peripherals & training. Advantage of HDPE bins for raised beds is that it provides flexibility – light & can be moved easily.
Project discussions (3), recce & liasion started since March 2017. Project highlights: Besides gardening, we are incorporating digital story telling via Facebook, Instagram – and ‘young teachers’ have been assigned to monitor students journal submissions. All this is aligned to the school’s curriculum content
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