Designing Hope has developed in 2011 a first pilot garden highlighting techniques of agroecology and permaculture in Piggs Peak, Swaziland. The success of this pilot garden encouraged Designing Hope to duplicate this initiative and link it to a pedagogical action.
Designing Hope benefited from close links with schools in Swaziland (support of orphans and disadvantaged children in 14 schools since 2011) and with the regional hospital (food distribution to HIV patients since 2005), that helped identify the beneficiaries for this extension of the project and organize the follow up.
Today a team of 6 people is in charge of training, and maintening the gardens. They work with school teachers and 240 volunteers children.They are also in charge of two community gardens, and a demonstration garden at the hospital.
The women in charge of the vegetable garden at the Garden of Skills in Malanti, Eswatini, work their beds according to the principle of crop associations.In this way, the beds are never empty, crops are harvested according to kitchen needs, … Read More
The four women in charge of the vegetable garden at the Garden of Skills water the beds every morning, and the method of combining crops and harvesting them gradually means that the beds are never empty. The women replace vegetables … Read More
A wonderful initiative was recently launched near Malanti: the distribution of school uniforms to underprivileged children in local schools. The aim is to help families in difficulty and ensure that all children can go to school in a country where … Read More
At the Garden of Skills, the children in the crèche start the day by tending their own little vegetable garden, the Teen-Gi garden, accompanied by the crèche manager and one of the women in charge of the centre’s garden. The … Read More
Fesile presents the seedlings sown in the greenhouse as the southern winter approaches.The seeds were selected from the organic seed catalogue of agrosemens, a partner of Designing Hope.
Every month, Designing Hope and its local partner Fundzisa Live distribute food parcels to the most vulnerable HIV-positive patients treated at Piggs Peak Hospital. They benefit from this programme for 6 months, in order to strengthen their natural defences.
5 women are in charge of the cultivation beds in the Garden of Skills, a daily task carried out since 2021, when the project began in the Malanti hills in Eswatini. Growing the plants in parallel rows at right angles … Read More
Sweet potatoes at the Garden of Skills, Malanti, Eswatini The sweet potato is very popular in Eswatini, and is also suitable for sloping ground as it produces abundant creeping foliage. After each harvest, the women take cuttings from the harvested … Read More
Strawberries do well in Eswatini! The women in charge of the Malanti “Garden of Skills” have reserved a special place for them: a circular mandala. This year, the plants have produced their first crop of fruit, as well as numerous … Read More
In Malanti, at the Garden of Skills, 5 women are in charge of the maintenance of the vegetable garden. The garden is organised in 80 cm wide plots, on which the association of crops is favoured in order to optimise … Read More
