Cathrin’s Adventure #2 GIY exploring Germany
Hello!
Really hope you had a great start in the new year. I escaped the rain and spent Christmas and new year at home with my family in Germany and had a really lovely time.
Before Christmas I got in contact with lovely community garden group from Munich, Germany called “o’pflanzt is”. I had such a laugh reading their name as it is related to the quote you say on the octoberfest “o’zapft” is. I thought I definitely need to get in contact with these guys and funny enough the guy who came back to me: Patrick is originally from County Galway. Not enough he knew about GIY as his mom used to attend GIY meetings. Small world! So we met while I was home for Christmas and he kindly showed me around their garden, which really deserves the title community garden. They have great spaces where they can hang out like their “outdoor kitchen”. They also run a great project called Kune, a social project aimed at bringing together refugees and locals through gardening and are working with kids in an afterschool’s programme based around healthy eating. This project really inspired me as it absolutely addresses long term solutions on how we integrate refugees from my point of view.
There is also great initiative in Cork called The Clonakilty Friends of Asylum Seekers, which GIY supported with the Get Ireland Growing Fund in 2015. The Clonakilty Community Garden was set up in conjunction with The Clonakilty Friends of Asylum Seekers, on a disused plot of land opposite The Clonakilty Lodge, a direct provision hostel for Asylum Seekers. The Vegetable garden was set up to promote the health, wellbeing and integration of this beautiful, diverse and vulnerable community. There are 100 people living in the hostel ,roughly half are children. (I attached pictures from them)
In case you got so inspired and are thinking about starting something similar we would love to tell you more about it and support you. So do not hesitate contacting me on [email protected] or Karen on [email protected].
Happy GIYing
Cathrin
