Somerset West Village Garden recently received a wonderful £2 000 boost to its coffers from Jambo Safari, a local tour operator which works with Explore UK. This after the community gem was nominated as a possible entity to receive the donation last year.
The aim of Explore’s Start-up Fund is to enable local people in the countries they visit, and care about, to start sustainable, self-sustaining and reliable businesses. It asks all its local agents around the world to nominate brand-new business ideas or inform it about small, grassroots start-ups that need a funding boost, and to its delight the Somerset West Village Garden was chosen as one of the recipients for receiving funding.
Jenny Findlay of Somerset West Village Garden said the entity is extremely grateful to receive the funding, which will go towards erecting a small greenhouse to germinate seedlings in winter as well as a covered area where weekly markets can be held during inclement weather.
The Somerset West Village Garden is a community vegetable garden started seven years ago on a derelict municipal park to give people living on the streets a chance to change their circumstances and a hand-up, not a hand-out.
They earn a token for every hour they work, which they can exchange at Thomas House of Hope for a hot shower, a hot plate of food, clothing and groceries. If its clients save 20 tokens the institution will assist them to acquire new identity documents.
Working in the garden gives these marginalised people a chance to heal, build their self-esteem up and regain their dignity.
The garden has transformed a derelict piece of land into a verdant urban farm and the vegetables produced are sold every Tuesday from 09:00 to 11:00.
The garden supplies Thomas House of Hope, Bright Lights and The Somerset West Night Shelter with vegetables for their feeding schemes.
Volunteers are always welcome. To find out more about the Somerset West Village Garden please e-mail info@swvg.co.za.
