Garden Flyer

Prolonged Peace

Prolonged Peace:

The peace promoted through the establishment of the community garden will be sustained through the profit that the communal garden plot yield. One plot in the garden will be reserved for the organization; these yields will be sold at local farmers markets during the summer and also to local restaurants. The profits will be used to sustain the costs of the garden in coming years. After establishment the garden will also join the New York City Community Garden Coalition, where further fundraising and grants will be available to ensure the prolonged permanence of the garden.

Additional efforts to ensure the permanence of the garden will include a program certifying garden volunteers through the completion of attendance at two lecture series and a fulfillment of a set number of hours in the garden. The certification will allow them unrestricted access to the garden and grant them authority to train other less experienced community members in urban gardening. The main objectives of the certification program are to establish a greater sense of achievement among residence and increase involvement in the garden over a prolonged time period.

The permanence of the garden will provide residents with meaningful activities to aid their transition into the community. The garden will channel attention into progressive activities making it less likely that community members will become involved in harmful activities that fuel crime and violence, detracting from the peaceful balance that is necessary for resettled refugees to flourish.

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[1] Hevesi, Alan G., Bleiwas, Kenneth B. “Staten Island: Economic Development and the State of the Borough Economy”. Office of the State Comptroller and NYC Public Information Office. March 2005, www.osc.state.ny.us

[2] Kim M, Van Wye G, Kerker B, Thorpe L, Frieden TR, The Health of Immigrants in New York City, p 17

Objectives

IV.                Objectives:

·         Providing Affordable, Healthy Food: Plots, seeds and supplies will be free as will whatever each person’s crop yields. The only cost will be the time and labor required to produce harvest.

·         Teaching Financial Management: In addition to providing food to the participants and their families, garden members will also have a chance to sell their produce at community events and local farmers markets. This will teach the fundamentals of wage earning, saving, marketing and income allocation.

·         Improving Nutrition: The mortality rate in Park hill is 25% higher than the greater New York area. The nutritional yields from the garden will not only instill healthier eating habits but also spark discussion on healthy life styles.

·         Enhancing Self-Esteem: Post traumatic stress is an unspoken but all too common problem among refugees leading to isolation, cyclical violence in the home, depression and even suicide. The horrors that Liberian refugees have experienced are life changing and not easily surmountable. The community garden will however, provide an opportunity for residents to connect to the familiarity of agriculture and bring their focus to the outside world fostering a new understanding of self worth and identity.

·         Providing Employment: The garden, through additional grants, will hire a garden supervisor to comprise the garden’s permanent staff of volunteers. The paid supervisor will serve as positive examples as to how enthusiasm and hard work make upward mobility possible, despite limited economic resources.  

·         Fostering Group Identity: Though Park hill is largely Liberian there are also a large number of Haitian, Nigerian and other West African refuges in addition to low income U.S. citizens. The garden will build the community as a whole, as it takes on individual meaning to those dealing with post traumatic stress or simply making ends meet. The garden will be a safe, serene place where members can create cross cultural links among diverse community members.

·         Educating Children: African Refuge hosts a well-established youth, after school and summer program. A plot will be reserved in the garden for the youth center with the intention of educating younger generations on healthy life styles and sustainable practices in hopes that they will learn skills necessary for self sufficiency later in life.

·         Encouraging Environmental Sustainability: Through a partnership with Just Food Inc. the garden project will host a series of guest lecturers to educate residence on green living and sustainable practices that can easily be implement in their daily lives for example using recycled soda bottles as pots for seeding.

Methods

The initiative to build a community garden will begin this March with an informational session in conjunction with African Refuge and Just Foods. Prior to the informational session, mailings about the garden initiative will be sent to the homes of African Refuge’s constituents and updates about the project will be included in newsletters in order to generate interest and support. At the March informational session pots and seeds will be given to participants so that they can begin seeding their crops in mid April. We will utilize a small greenhouse space donated by a family in Morris County New Jersey, to start seedlings.

The project will officially be launched in the second week of June, with a clean-up day. All those interested in securing a plot will have to donate an hour to clean-up. The clean-up day will focus on clearing the roof top space for construction and planting. The Saturday following the clean-up day (June 11^th) will feature a ribbon cutting day where local press and community members will meet to declare the garden space open for construction.

Work days will commence on Monday (June 14^th) after the ribbon cutting ceremony. Our first task will be moving supplies to the rooftop space. The next task will be constructing raised beds; this task will most likely take three work days consisting of three to five hours of work a piece. After the beds are constructed planting and transplanting can begin.

During work day lunch breaks on Wednesdays guest speakers will come in to talk about issues relating to environmental sustainability and community development. Community members have offered to speak about green employment, what it means to be a refugee today, health conscious cooking, finance and environmental current events. The goal of these discussions will be to create an environment that is secure, peaceful and conducive to informed discussion.

Project Proposal

II.                  Proposal:

In order to empower the community and add to the growing success of resettled Liberian refugees we wish to establish a community garden that will create a source of nutrition, a sense of self-reliance and a small income stream for the members of Park Hill’s refugee and low income community. The garden will be placed on the rooftop of the 185 Park Hill apartment complex, home to the African Refuge Community Center. Permission to use the space has already been granted by landlord, Dr. Darshan Shah. The initiative will be community led, drawing from local volunteers for help with construction, agricultural advisement and creative design. Members of the community have already expressed an interest in participating in the project, and Executive Director of local nonprofit African Refuge has offered expertise from his Liberian agricultural background.

The garden will also provide for discussion on agriculture and nutrition. In order to foster such discussion we have set up a designated time slot during work days dedicated to guest lecture. The organization Just Food, a New York based nonprofit aimed at educating city dwellers on agriculture, will come in to present at a preliminary informational session in late march. Other lectures will not only draw on outside resources but also draw on the expertise of the community which heralds a strong agricultural legacy.

Background Information on U.S.- Liberia Relations

I.                    Background of U.S. Liberian Relations

Liberia and the United States have a long and aid-dependent relationship. Liberia has gone through perpetual cycles of bankruptcy and instability stemming from their financial dependence on the international community, the oppressive reign of Charles Taylor, two civil wars, ethnic warfare and bloody coupes. During the first civil war many Liberian refugees fled to the United States. Since then renewed conflict has created a prolonged refugee situation in which refugees are living under emergency conditions for prolonged periods of time as stateless persons. The idleness that these conditions promote, both in urban centers and refugee camps, lend themselves to economic hardship, crime, drug use, depression and resentment.

Park Hill Staten Island, home to the largest Liberian population outside West Africa, still sees many resettled Liberian Refugees living on the periphery of US society, waiting idly for a cue from the international community as to their status. This has created a breeding ground for crime, drug use and economic instability for families and community members in Park Hill. The poverty rate is the highest in the borough at 21% and the Bloods, Crips and Latin Kings have active chapters in surrounding areas[1]. The community as a whole struggles with health and nutritional issues. Most residents lack health care and do not regularly see doctors which has resulted in the 25% higher mortality rate in Park Hill as compared with the greater New York area[2].  Peace for this population lies not only in the absence of conflict but in the security of good health and a sense of self worth.

Introduction

Peace is a perfect balance, a combination of all the necessary and positive stimuli that foster growth and development. A plant demonstrates the simplicity of this balance. If a plant can lay its roots in soil that contains all necessary elements for life it will grow and help sustain the human race. We as humans are more closely related to plants than the food chain presents. Like plants, humans require a perfect balance of elements if they are to grow and develop; the most basic of which are safety, food and water. Drought, political instability, economic downturn and ethnic tension have made this perfect balance a more foreign and unattainable concept for the majority of the world’s population.