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No.
002, 25 April 2003
If you as an individual, or as
a representative of a group involved
in social and economic development,
have requests or information that
you feel would be important to
pass on to others around the world,
please contact us at partners@mgvinc.com.
Also please check out our web-site
at www.partnersforprosperity.org.
Let us share your hopes, ideas
and requests with each other and
assist the world to reach prosperity
for all.
This month, at Partners for Prosperity,
we are featuring gardening, a modest
beginning in a budding feature
of community gardens around the
world. We find this a timely topic
for spring, and a great way to
feature Partners initiatives to
plant 'seeds' of development and
stimulate discussion amongst like
minded individuals.
In February of this year we were
very blessed to have David Megit,
a Canadian agriculturalist specialist,
visit the Cowichan Valley (Vancouver
Island, British Columbia) on his
way back to the Badi Foundation
in China. David, for the past three
years has been working for the
Mongolian Development Centre, assisting
local villagers in Erdenbulgan,
Mongolia to grow their own vegetables.
While in the Valley he shared his
expertise in agriculture, experiences
and slides with students at Maxwell
International Bahai School and
visited Providence Farm, a local
therapeutic community where Horticultural
Therapy and Vocational Rehabilitation
are used as tools to provide programs
for people with barriers to education
and employment. A great deal of
learning occured as people were
able to ask questions and share
information with each other.
Also while in the valley, David
was able to obtain seeds from a
number of sources to take back
to Mongolia. He would like to express
his thanks to Marti Martenwood
of Two Wings farm in Metchosin
and Lyon Malt of Inwood Nursery,
Don and Fereshteh Grenier and Dela
Watters of Dinters Nursury in Duncan
for their kind donations. David
has just wrote Partners to let
us know that the first crops of
vegetables for the season have
been seeded under plastic tunnels
in the community garden and are
doing well in spite of a frost.
A highlight of David's trip was
a meeting at the Cowichan Tribes,
Tsewulten Health Centre, where
members from a number of gardening initiatives
gathered to share ideas and resources. We
invite you to read more in the
column from the local newspaper
called the Citizen.
This meeting in turn, has lead
to a number of spin off projects
and events. One very special event
was a lovely sustainable garden
tour and luncheon for approximately
fifteen First nations Cowichan
Elders at the home of Don and Fereshte
Grenier. Don and Fereshteh live
in the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver
Island. Guests learned how a garden
planted on less than an acre of
land sustains and feeds threee
to four families all year. We viewed
winter crops and were treated to
Elder Ethel Wilson tell stories
of how it used to be . We then
all shared gifts of a meal made
from the garden and ocean and shared "good
feelings". It was a wonderful,
very heart warming event that built
bridges between people oon a solid
foundation of sustainable food
production and food sustainability.
All attending were very open to
it happening again as soon as the
weather warms and we can go outdoors.
Thanks ever so much to the Greniers
for hosting this truly memorable
event and to all who came and made
it possible. Keep posted for more
'seeds' to sprout..... |
