The Society for International Education (SIE) runs the iEARN Pakistan Centre in Karachi, Quetta and Islamabad, focused on educational development and the capacity building of K-12 students, teachers and youth in general.
As part of its youth and community focused programs, SIE have launched the ‘Lettuce Grow,’ an environmental citizenship project in Pakistan for introducing young people and communities to growing Kitchen Gardens.
Excerpted from the Facebook page:
“I am extremely excited to start a kitchen garden at a school in my community,” says a YES alumna during the Lettuce Grow Training Program.
Twenty YES Alumni and Access teachers enthusiastically participated in the Lettuce Grow project in December last year at the iEARN Center, Karachi. The day was packed with an interactive session on container gardening and hands on experience of growing vegetables and fruits easily.
Objectives
The project activities are aimed at:
- developing environmental citizenship
- community outreach and volunteerism
- making conscious contribution towards long-term food sustainability
- experiential learning
SIE have collaborated with Engro Envy to launch and run its first Training of the Trainers enabling youth leaders and teachers to start a Kitchen Garden at school or their communities.
The training was conducted by an extremely qualified trainer, Mr. Neeem Ali Farrukh from Engro Fertilizers for a group of KL-YES Alumni and the Access teachers.
The participants were involved in various activities to enable to understand the basic concept of Container Gardening, challenges, soil structure, sowing, growing, watering and taking care of their plants including hands at every step.
The Lettuce Grow project is planning an exhibit as an end product to display the fully-grown plants and produce of the participants in April 2014.
How to get involved
People interested in joining the ‘Lettuce Grow’ can:
- Participate in trainings offered by SIE to start a Kitchen Garden at your own home/communities
- Start a Kitchen Garden as part of your school activities
- Reach out to communities involving others in growing
- Volunteer and help our team reach out to communities
- Adopt any community and help support them in starting a kitchen garden.
We thank Engro Fertilizers for their continuous support and efforts for making the Lettuce Grow Project a big success.
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