Helena Kandume

Poverty and food insecurity have been on the rise due to a persistent drought and a significant shift in urban-rural population migration in the Hardap region. 

Additional difficulties have also been brought on by the Covid-19 epidemic due to revenue losses and increased unemployment. 

However, all that did not discourage Barendt Majiedt, a gardener at Garden of Hope in Ommamas. 

The Garden of Hope is a community garden sponsored by the Windhoek Rotary Club, who provided pipes, seeds and an irrigation system to the farming community located in the Rehoboth Rural constituency. 

The garden is housed at the St Patrick’s Primary School, and Majiedt has been the caretaker of the garden since its inception in 2006. It supports the school by providing free vegetables.

“We work with the learners at school. They help with the upkeep of the garden, and we support them by giving the school free vegetables,” explained Majiedt. 

Thus far, four community gardens have been started in surrounding areas such as Duineveld, Schlip and Kalkrand with support from the Garden of Hope initiative through its Agricultural Training Centre.

“So far, we have trained 15 community members from each of those places. They are also given the necessary tools such as gardening equipment, taps and seeds to start gardens in their communities,’ he said.

He added that some people have successfully created their gardens, and their gardens are flourishing. However, others are failing to properly grow food due to the gardens not being cared for. 

“The failing is because the people are not giving attention to the gardens”, he stated.              

* Helena Kandume is an information officer with MICT Hardap.