Sowing the seeds for a better future
Our social housing in Pattaya has a large garden area, and we have been using this spaces to support the community to grow edible plants and flowers. What started as a project to feed the community, has become a social enterprise where people learn to grow and harvest the plants to sell at the local market.
The project has been extended by supporting local slum areas to start their own community gardens. In partnership with St Andrews International School and Regent’s International School, students grew seedlings which were then dispersed throughout the slum communities which we visit each week. Banglamung government officials have also been keen to help us establish this program and they have provided seeds to communities that have been distributed by us.
Please read a full description of the project: United nations Human Dignity Protection Organization Garden to Market Project Outline
Growing the program
Our aim in 2020 is to start a training program for six students at a time, to teach gardening skills and business skills so that unemployed people can start their own market selling businesses. We also want the students to go back to where they live (mostly in slum communities) and start new community gardens. We want the people of Pattaya to be less dependant on handouts and more self-sufficient, so they can plan for better futures for themselves and their families.