On Monday, November 18th Earthchild Project held an opening launch of a new school garden at Sakumlandela Primary School in Khayelitsha. This marks our second garden in the area as part of our mission to establish sustainable, green spaces at four of our schools in Khayelitsha. This launch comes just three months after we celebrated the first harvest at our Ntwasahlobo Primary School garden—a proud milestone as we continue expanding our impact.
Sakumlandela Primary School is an ideal partner for this project, as it shares our vision of connecting learners with nature through firsthand, practical experiences. This is our second garden at Sakumlandela Primary School; the first was established 17 years ago. Since then, we’ve learned that sustaining a garden of this nature requires dedicated time, financial, and human resources. To ensure the garden’s ongoing success, we’re employing a local community member, as we did at Ntwasahlobo Primary, to oversee its maintenance and care. This approach not only supports the garden but also invests directly in the community. This new garden brings environmental education to life, right on the school grounds.
In Khayelitsha, fresh produce and green spaces are often hard to come by and often at an unaffordable cost. This garden will provide a sustainable source of vegetables at no cost to the school and supplement the produce used by the school’s feeding scheme which provides cooked meals for over 1000 children every day.
Beyond its role as a source of fresh produce, the garden will serve as a classroom for our learners where they will receive practical experience to support the environmental education theory we have been facilitating and an outdoor meeting room offering educators a tranquil space to collaborate.
This project was made possible through our partnership with Ben Getz from Urban Harvest Edible Gardens and the generous support of the YOPE Foundation. Our heartfelt thanks go to Michael Baum and the entire YOPE Foundation team for believing in this vision and helping bring it to life.
As we launch this second garden in Khayelitsha, we look forward to watching it grow and bring joy, health, and learning to the Sakumlandela community. We are deeply grateful to everyone who supported this project, and with continued backing, these gardens will offer valuable resources for many years.
We hope that this garden will bring lasting benefits to learners, improving both their education and well-being while creating a strong connection to sustainable practices.