Green oasis in the slum – the school garden of the Five Star School

The example of the school garden at the Five Star School shows how well the schools in the slum understand how to integrate important life skills into their lessons.

Since 2009, principal Charles has been encouraging his students to plant trees and other small plants on the school grounds. Through exchanges with other CIFEFA schools in Nairobi, Charles learns a lot about urban agriculture. He passes on his skills to the students and they are so enthusiastic that they are pushing the project forward with great commitment. The success can be seen – vegetables are cultivated all year round on an area of about 55 m². The small piece of land is divided into sections, and in each section a different type of vegetable grows, such as kale, spinach, peas, onions and many local vegetables such as Terere, Managu, Seveve or Saga.

Agriculture and climate protection

In addition to agricultural skills, the students also learn about environmental protection. Useful materials for the garden are made from garbage. For example, the pupils recycle old plastic tarpaulins to prevent the natural erosion and leaching of soil and nutrients from the soil. Recycled material is also used to raise seedlings. And natural waste is used as a fertiliser instead of chemical pesticides. “An important contribution to climate protection”, as one schoolgirl proudly tells us.

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Every day in the morning, the students work in the community garden for some time before going to class. “It is a very nice feeling to see that you can get a great harvest from a small piece of land,” says one of the students in the short video that can be seen here: