Author and Photo Credits: Tigist Gebremedhin, WASH Coordinator, HEKS Ethiopia

Abdurahman, Shemsia, Tahir and Rehima attend a Blue School of HEKS in Ethiopia. A Blue School is a school where children learn about environmentally friendly technologies and practices for their everyday life. Due to the trainings on vegetable gardening in their school, the four students became interested to start a vegetable garden at home. On a 125 square meter plot, they now started to grow beet roots and carrots.

Abdurahman Abdela, his sister Shemsia Abdela, their father Ato Abdela Suleiman and two of their cousins, Tahir Kedir and Rehima Kedir, live in Welensuna Kebele in the Oromia region of Ethiopia. The two girls, Rehima and Shemsia are 6^th graders, while the boys, Tahir and Abdurahman, are 5^th graders. They all attend the Welensu Chatimana primary school. In this school, HEKS in collaboration with Dorcas Aid Ethiopia is implementing a school WASH project and is promoting the Blue School Approach.

Transferring the Knowledge from Blue Schools to Communities

Abdurahman is a member of his school agriculture club. In this club, Abdurahman learns about climate-smart agricultural, for instance how to grow food sustainably and to use water economically. He, his sister and his cousins told their family about the training they attended at their school on vegetable gardening. They explained the practical steps and exercises they did at their school. The father, Ato Abdela, recounts:

Our children requested us to provide them a piece of land from the family farmland to apply their knowledge.

The four students justified their request for land by telling their parents that vegetables are one of the most important food categories for a balanced nutrition. They also told them that when sold, vegetables generate more income than cereals.

Ato Abdela and his family cultivate cereals, such as barley and wheat, on the family farmland. Everyone who has land in the neighborhood cultivates barley too. As there is a lot of produce, prices of the cereals are usually very low during harvest season. At the same time, the prices of vegetables are high, and families need to buy vegetables from the market. Therefore, the family liked the idea of the children to grow their own vegetables and provided them with a piece of land to practice gardening and vegetable growing. Ato Abdela gave the four students approximately 125 square meters of land which was already ploughed and prepared to plant barely. They further prepared the land and planted beet roots and carrots. The students are very excited to see their vegetables grow and are taking good care of the seedlings. Ato Abdela says:

We are happy that they wanted to experiment and try what they learned in their school.