By Mansi Kotak and Muskan Singh | Team RKF
Mini Botanical Garden Update:
RKF's mini Botanical Garden is complete! And we're only sharing a sneak peak of the before and after here. We are so excited to share a comprehensive video of the entire journey of converting this backyard space into a colourful garden where students from different schools can come and learn about Climate Action and what role each and every one of us has to play to keep our planet going!
New Veggie Patch:
A community that grows vegetables together, stays together!
The area which we turned into our vegetable patch was formerly being used as a dump site to throw and burn trash.
It was the ideal place to plant vegetables because of the sunlight it received throughout the day and also the fertile ground which had all kinds of compost accumulated through the years.
We started with levelling and getting rid of any trash that wasn’t reusable. Here at RKF, we believe nothing goes to waste if it can be re-used, hence we used bamboo to raise the ground and iron sheets to ensure that the soil doesn’t erode.
And now we have 4 beautiful looking patches with at least 25 different varieties of fruit and vegetable seedlings that include spinach, herbs (like rosemary, fenugreek, basil), strawberries, carrots, cucumbers, pumpkin, Swissh Chard, okra and tomatoes to name a few! Space doesn’t matter, it’s what you decide to do with it that does.
As Covid cases in Kisumu are currently on the decline, we are hoping to start our weekly workshops with students and we are so excited to share updates from these workshops in the coming months.
A Story from Lucas:
We have a new gardener among us!
Lucas joined our team to help us finish our mini botanical garden and he has been witness to the growth of several plants, whether from seeds or cuttings! He has, himself, planted several seedlings in the garden.
He is as excited as we are when there’s a new flower blooming or a new vegetable growing.
“My favorite part of the garden is the Mboga Bags because so much can be planted in such a small space. It can also be a source of income generation.”
With the experience he has had here, he plans on “starting a small farm back at home and also teaching his community how to grow vegetables and flowers to make their homes beautiful.”
Photo Contest:
Drumroll, please...
Out of 400+ entries, The Rahul Kotak Foundation was selected as a #GGPhotoContest finalist for the 3rd year in a row—and we need your help to win up to $1,000 in support of COVID-19 Relief to families in marginalized communities.
VOTING IS NOW OPEN!
The Story behind this photo: Smiles that Shine
There are countless instances worth capturing in a bustling classroom. This one is our favourite! Meet the boys of St. Vitalis Nang’a Primary School, who were absolutely overjoyed after receiving a new set of books and stationery!
At the start of our reading and storytelling workshop, the children were particularly quiet and shy. Gradually, they began opening up to us as we enacted fairy tales to them. By the end of our workshop, the children in this classroom were ecstatically chanting ‘Kitabu Changu, Haki Yangu’ – ‘My Book, My Right.’
And this Memorable Moment was recently selected as a Finalist in GlobalGiving's Annual Photo Contest!
Links:
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