By Robyn Love | Project Leader
Greetings from SPI!
I am excited to share with you some updates about our programs in Poland and Ukraine. Sadly, Russian hostilities continue in Ukraine, causing close to 1.4 million Ukrainians to seek refuge in Poland and 7 million Ukrainians to be internally displaced and away from their home within Ukraine. Seed Programs International is currently working with organizations in Poland and Ukraine to create gardening programs to increase food supply and create place-connection during a time of crisis.
Our Resiliency Gardens program was created to support schools in Poland that have welcomed Ukrainian refugees into their communities. We are currently supporting 7 schools in Poland with the Resiliency Gardens program. The gardening programs are underway for this current school year and the students are excited to learn about plants, soil, and gardening. Materials are being purchased to create the gardens and plans are being created for the spring planting season. Programs range from primary school through high school and are supported with educational materials from KidsGardening.org and Trips beyond the classroom, a Poland based outdoor education organization. The students are excited to be outside and participate in hands-on learning activities.
We are also starting some programs in Ukraine to support Ukrainians that are internally displaced within their country. We are partnering with UCare to purchase 1,000 fruit trees that will be planted this fall and winter in the unoccupied regions of Ukraine. A portion of each harvest will be donated to food relief efforts. We are also partnering with EDGE to support their SURGe program to plant Victory Gardens in Ukraine. This program will start in the winter and will create a community garden in Volochysk and school gardens in Kamyanets-Podilskyi, Kyiv, and Zorivka. These programs will serve as pilot programs to develop a toolkit for urban gardening and a pathway to promote urban gardening in city planning and policy creation. The toolkit can be used by other schools and community centers to create urban gardens. The participating teachers will act as mentors to support expansion into other schools and community centers.
If you have any questions, want to learn more about our programs, or know of an organization that would like to participate in the program, then please reach out. We would love to hear from you.
Happy gardening,
The SPI team
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