General

Mai 2020: Ethiopia / Lalibela: waste dump turns into vegetable garden

A waste dump turns into a well-kept vegetable garden

Zelalem and 4 other friends who have an education in agriculture met and founded a «cooperative for self-help». They originally lived in the country, but moved to Lalibela to find training and work. Her interest in agriculture comes from her parents, who taught them traditional farming.

Two group members, Zelalem and Abush, received lessons in agriculture at school.

Lalibela is an urban center and has very limited space for agriculture. The young people identified a piece of land where the residents dumped their rubbish. This was a health risk to people and the environment, and therefore the municipality gave them permission to redevelop the area for their agricultural idea. They are now doing modern gardening and farming there, growing vegetables and selling them on the market. In addition to using this space and garden idea to constantly improve their income, they also protect the environment by cleaning the area, planting trees, and turning the land into a green area. This minimizes the health risks. There are many good reasons for PBF to support this project.

The working group, committed and motivated to protect the environment and improve the income in favor of families, knows about the high costs of realizing their project.

They presented their idea for a startup PBF. Environmental remediation, environmental protection, new jobs were good reasons to be considered. Start-up financing enabled them to carry out the following steps:

  • Purchase of a water storage tank and pipes for irrigation
  • Disposal of the waste that was stored there for over ten years
  • Terrace and put in place some precautions to prevent erosion
  • Fencing to protect against animals
  • Access to water through the municipality’s water supply
  • Water tank ensures that water is always available

The group did a remarkable job and completely changed the place. Now she needs further support for the expansion in order to make a living for five families profitably. In April the group received further support from PBF. The group is now planning the following:

Further work on the site, new structures to be able to use the land next to the river. This creates a larger acreage for vegetables, tomatoes, carrots, cabbage, garlic onions, green pepper..

A small shop is also planned.

This project is directly related to the main project of PBF in all of Ethiopia for the years 2020/2021: Bee and Tree.

Dan Amolo