By Rachael LeClear | Program Director
Dearest supporters,
Spring greetings from Lesvos! This is one of our favorite seasons here on the island, as the fields are covered in white chamomile and red poppies, wisteria and jasmine fill the air, and bright green leaves pop from every tree and vine. Our greenhouse is full of seedlings, baby chicks have hatched, and our winter crops are giving us their last harvest. Spring is in full swing!
Our volunteers have been hard at work creating and preparing new gardens for the growing season. In Plomari, Sporos worked alongside parents, teachers, friends, and students to create a school garden in their 3rd elementary school playground, with one raised bed for each class plus an extra for the neighboring kindergarten. We also donated two aeroponics tower gardens to teach the children alternative ways of gardening. The beds and towers will soon be full of flowers and vegetables, the children full of knowledge, and their tummies full of healthy and nutritious food!
We have also partnered with local NGO Because We Carry to create a new permaculture garden near Mavrovouni refugee camp, complete with raised beds, herb spirals, fruit trees, relaxing seating areas, compost area for food waste recycling, and more. This space will provide camp residents - primarily women and children - with a peaceful place to relax, engage with nature, learn and practice permaculture gardening, and bond as a community as they care for the earth. Tending the garden will provide them with knowledge, fresh produce, healing herbs, beautiful flowers, and a refuge from the difficult circumstances of life in camp.
Speaking of refuges, EcoHub, our ecotherapeutic garden at Parea Civic Action Center (formerly One Happy Family Community Center), is also in full swing with a robust team of international volunteers working to create beautiful and productive green spaces all around the center. We once again offered garden sessions (focusing primarily on ecotherapy and nutrition) to the children in the psychosocial support program of Medical Volunteers International. Prior to these sessions, MVI had noted that the children were only eating plain rice and pasta and were thus lacking many essential nutrients in their diets. After creating veggie men and fruit rainbows, going on sensory scavenger hunts in the garden, learning how plants make us healthy and strong, and tasting many new foods, they had fresh produce in their hands and smiles on their faces!
Further on the education front, the first session of our new pedagogical program, Make It Green Lesvos, is now underway! Designed for children aged 12-15 years old, the program aims to create active young citizens and to form their environmental identities through environmental education, permaculture and theatrical play. We explore hot topics related to the environment, such as climate change, pollution and recycling, and set strong foundations for new actions designed and organized by our students with the moral, practical and logistical support of our Institute. As always, this and all of our programs include everyone, regardless of race and ethnicity. They serve as a bridge between different worlds and cultivate acceptance and integration, bringing everyone together, and are driven only by the common good. Make it Green Lesvos is part of the program Civic Europe (www.civiceurope.eu), which is an incubator for locally rooted civic initiatives, organizations and individuals in Central, Eastern and Southern Europe, realized by MitOst and Sofia Platform Foundation, funded by Stiftung Mercator. We thank them for their support!
We also have three upcoming workshops at our farm that will bring together people from all around the world: two Permaculture Design Certificate courses in June and September, and a natural building seminar in July. They will be held in multiple languages to facilitate understanding and equal participation among all students and are offered with the intention of expanding the use of permaculture techniques in the local community and beyond. If you know of someone who would be a good candidate for one of these courses, please get in touch!
Finally, for a second consecutive year, we collaborate with the Center for Sustainable Circular Bioeconomy and Energy of the University of Aegean. The prunings from our selected olive trees are weighed so that there can be a study of the yield, the production rate and the seasonal fluctuation of biomass produced. The aim of the research is the sustainable production and biomass management of the olive trees of Lesvos.
With your support, the island of Lesvos is becoming greener, more productive, more sustainable, and more inclusive. We are grateful for your contributions to our work, and if you like what you see, we encourage you to share it with your networks so that we may continue into the future.
And we always love to hear from our community, so please drop us a line anytime on social media with your ideas, resources, suggestions, or to share your own garden successes! In the meantime, happy spring from Lesvos!
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