We are past the wet season and work on the School Garden project in Batugarde School - Balibo has begun.
This two year project creating a School garden from bare earth is now underway. We needed to wait for the wet season to pass, and for the installation of a new water pump and tank, but we are now underway.
November 2023, our club approved a school garden project in Timor Leste, working with the in country partner - Spend it well.
Spend it Well undertook to determine the school and ensure that the work was undertaken to ensure the garden is prepared and maintained. We selected the project from our desire to undertake work in Timor Leste and to create a project that addresses nutrition, economic development and children's health.
The project is located in Batugarde which is located on the main road between Dili (Timor Leste) and Kupang - which is the capital of Nusa Tenggara Timur - a province of Indonesia on the western part of Timor Island.
Firstly the school was selected, this first task which was undertaken by Spend It Well. The next task was to ensure the water supply for the garden, and this entailed a new pump and tank as the existing equipment was unusable and needed to be replaced.
With the wet season, over, work has now begun on building the garden as the photo below demonstrates
Step one was to build a fence around the garden to keep out the wandering animals which you can see is a combination of locally felled timber and wire mesh
The next step has been to layout the raised bed and the photo below depicts the first bed, and the furrow between the first bed and the next bed to be created.
As more photos are shared with us, we will bring you the updates on this project.
Ours is not the only project where Spend it Well is the partner - here is a link to the growing number of projects building schools and school gardens that Spend it Well are co-ordinating.