The Garden Project

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To fully appreciate the importance of this project, it is essential to familiarise oneself with the Namibian school system: The crucial exams in the life of a school child are held at the end of grade 10. As long as school children are under the age of 16, they can repeat the exams in case of failure. Once they are over 16, they drop out of the system.

The rate of school children failing their grade 10 examinations has recently risen, and we have begun to wonder: What is going to happen with the drop-outs?

To us, there is one obvious answer to this problem: Let’s keep them busy!

We decided to start our own agricultural college for high school drop-outs. This would help us to work on two important problems in our region: unemployment and shortage of food during the dry season.

The project will accept about ten students annually who are willing and able to go back to their own villages after the one-year course (and after two harvests) and start their own gardens.

The course will instruct them on how to plant, foster, harvest, market vegetables and how to use simple irrigation systems, the same type their villages will be provided with at a later stage. The participants in this program will not earn any money but will get their education funded, and they will also get their share of the harvest.

The system consists of a 500 litre water tank with water pipes leading in all directions, comparable to a spider’s net. These pipes will be equipped with holes and fitted with thread to allow for drip irrigation. This system runs without any pump or electronic supply.
It costs around 1500N$ per garden.

The lessons at Mayana will be taught by Piet Jacobs who has fifteen years of experience in the agricultural sector under his belt.

This system is unique in the area around Mayana.

For the second season, the trenches have to be refilled with compost and soil, so that further uprooting for the development of new fields become redundant.

The essential qualities for any of our applicants for the gardening project will not only be the school grades but also capabilities that play a substantial role in the agricultural field such as mental and physical endurance, understanding for growth processes and practical experience with fruit and vegetable gardening.

If the project turns out to be a success, it will be transferred in coming years to the neighbouring regions which have similar conditions and a similar proximity to the river.

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