News
US City Residents Honour Professor Maathai
The original article was published in the Sunday Nation on the 14th of October, 2012.
Previously overgrown and unused land in Washington DC has been newly transformed into a neighbourhood organic farm that honours the memory of Kenyan environmentalist Prof Wangari Maathai.
Kenya’s Ambassador to the United States, Elkanah Odembo, paid tribute to the late Prof Maathai at a ceremony in late September at which the 1.2-hectare property was formally given the name “Wangari Gardens”.
Fresh produce
A small commemorative plaque surrounded by flowers provides biographical information about Prof Maathai, who died last year aged 71.
A portion of the city-owned land, which is bordered by a highway and a hospital, is now sprouting vegetables, berries and medicinal herbs thanks to the efforts of 100 local volunteers.
They responded earlier this year to a call by two neighbourhood activists to help create a set of small food-growing plots in a part of the US capital city that lacks shops selling fresh produce.
Known as Park View, the neighbourhood is within walking distance of Howard University, one of America’s best known historically African-American educational institutions.
Mr Josh Singer, the 23-year-old co-leader of the initiative, says he became inspired by Prof Maathai while studying for a graduate degree in history.
“I was amazed to learn what she did in her life, and I thought a community garden would be an appropriate way to honour her and carry on her message,” Mr Singer said in an interview last week at Wangari Gardens.
He works with a local NGO that plants trees in US cities. Ms Sarah McLaughlin, the other founder of the farm, serves as a gardening instructor at a primary school in Washington.
About 60 households in the area have paid a $50 (Sh4,200) membership fee that covers the cost of water pumped from a nearby fire hydrant. Growers also get access to gardening tools at a communal shed.
Supporters of Wangari Gardens are engaged in a fundraising drive that will enable them to build a ramp for wheelchairs so that patients at the nearby hospital can visit the site.
Photo Credit: http://www.nation.co.ke
