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Learning Garden Students Blossom into Organic Agriculture Heroes

Learning Garden graduates posing with their new certificates

Today, we witnessed our students who were participating in “Learning Gardens as a Tool for Development in Lebanon” blossom into young organic agriculture heroes! Fifteen kids who had previously participated in the series of workshops on organic agriculture in the Malaak NGO received their certificates.

Launched in June 2019, the project aims to strengthen the education and involvement of children and youth by developing their knowledge on nature and plants and building their capacities to increase their livelihood resilience through learning garden activities.

Gardening activities at the Malaak center in Halba

Over the course of the project, educational activities included workshops on inexpensive organic horticulture methods, local gardening practices, planting seasonal crops, designing gardens, establishing composting units as well as lessons on healthy nutrition, making mouneh, food preservation and environmental awareness.

Gardening activities at the Malaak center in Halba

The project “Learning Gardens as a Tool for Development in Lebanon” is implemented in partnership with the Danish NGO Zaher-Grow to Learn, Bouzourna Jouzourna (BZJ), SOILS Permaculture Association Lebanon, Jibal and is supported by CISU – Civil Society Fund in Denmark. The workshops were conducted across various locations including the BZJ farm in Saadnayel, ActionAid Arab Region (AAAR) centers in Joub Jannine and Baalbeck and the Malaak center in Halba.

Gardening activities at the Malaak center in Halba

We’re proud of all of the students that have completed the program. As successful graduates they will be able to bring their new knowledge and skills back to their families and communities and hopefully will be equipped with the know-how to create agricultural spaces that improve their food security by increasing food availability all year round.

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FHF supports Zaher – Grow to Learn

Guests at the dinner

Yesterday, September 6th, The Food Heritage Foundation represented by Anjuli participated in Zaher’s “Fundraising dinner: Support organic learning gardens in Lebanon” in The Grand Meshmosh Hotel.

The aim to promote a greener and more organic Lebanon connects FHF and Zaher. Anjuli held a short presentation about FHF’s experiences on the beneficial outcomes of organic gardening projects in Lebanon.

We are looking forward to the new cycle of activities with Zaher. An organic urban garden in the SEF center in Beirut is planned and well as some gardening activities with Zaher and Action Aid Arab in the Bekaa region.

Together we want to create awareness and space for learning gardens as well as empower vulnerable youth and children in growing their own food.

Anjuli during her speech

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Hosts and local guides

Qaisar Chedid, Saghbine

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Qaisar in the field during onion harvest season

Qaisar has been working the land all his life, taking on farming after his father. He mainly plants two crops: salamouni and regular onions and apples. He is one of the last onion farmers in Saghbine and its surrounding villages to still plant salamouni onions, a local variety of onions that is long and firm in shape and often pungent in taste.

When fully grown, these onions pop up from the surface of the earth and their harvest is an easy task. The best time to do so is early morning before sunrise, when the dew is still covering the earth, making it easy to hand pluck the onions.

Qaisar knows all about onion planting, flowering and harvesting season and is happy to have people over at his landing assisting him in onion harvesting and learning about this crop that characterized Saghbine since a long time.