WEN-supported food groups

OSCA (Ocean Somali Community Association) Women’s Community Garden,  Mile End, London

OSCA women's community garden

 Amina Abdi smiles as she talks about the garden at OSCA. She and other women of the centre will soon be  planting for their second season in the raised beds of their Mile End community garden.  The local authority gave OSCA permission to cultivate a few raised beds in a nearby park in early 2010, and Amina has been helping coordinate the women’s efforts. WEN was key to the creation of the community growing space, as none of the women who began the garden had any previous gardening experience.  As plans for the garden were being developed, there was plenty of enthusiasm for starting a growing space, but no one knew where to start.  This is where WEN came into the picture.

The women of OSCA contacted WEN for help, and a generous WEN volunteer, Ayan, came by with grow charts and general information for the aspiring gardeners.  With Ayan’s help the budding horticulturalists started planting their first seeds.  WEN staff and volunteers were available along the way with tips and advice as the season progressed.  There is a core group of five or six volunteers in the garden who turn up regularly to maintain it, and their cohort swells by up to ten on specific activity days.  The last year’s harvest from their few raised beds impressed everyone involved, and this year the group has been given an additional bed to cultivate.

WEN has conducted two Spice It Up organic growing training courses at OSCA over the past year, and all of the regular gardeners in the OSCA garden have taken the course.  WEN also provided half the funding for several fruit trees, which WEN staff and volunteers helped to plant in the garden last autumn.  Amina says that the Spice It Up training, along with actual growing experience in the garden, has increased confidence among the women of OSCA, and built enthusiasm for the project.  With the help of WEN, the OSCA women have established a growing space which should flourish for years to come.

Spice It Up training graduates at OSCA