Transgardens connects with educational gardens in 6 schools located around Piggs Peak, one in the local hospital, and one in a poor neighborhood in town, run by local NGO Fundzisa Live and Designing Hope with the support of The Ivory Foundation.

Designing Hope has developed in 2011 a first pilot garden highlighting the 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 an educational 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 maintaining the gardens. They work with school teachers and 240 volunteer children. They are also in charge of two community gardens and a demonstration garden at the hospital.

in 2017, a new plot was also given by the town council to develop a pilot agroforestry garden.

A project of the NGO Disigning Hope, with the support of

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Harvest of sweet potatoes

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

Care of Malanti strawberry plants

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

Maintenance of the cultivation plots of the Garden of Skills in Malanti

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

Sweet potato installation at Malanti garden, Eswatini

The development of the Malanti field is ongoing and the plantations begin with sweet potatoes! This species is particularly well adapted to the landscape of small mountains and hills with rocks in Eswatini, as well as its tropical climate. The … Read More

Distribution of food packages at Piggs Peak Hospital

Designing Hope funds each month the distribution of 30 “baskets” at the Piggs Peak hospital consisting mainly of vegetables, partially produced by Designing Hope at Macambeni garden, on the outskirts of Piggs Peak. These baskets are intended for targeted HIV-positive … Read More

Transplanting seedlings in Macambeni garden

The women are busy planting the vegetables grown in the greenhouse on the Macambeni garden. The Mandala Garden is also ready for new crops. It has been covered with a layer of mulch to keep the culture beds moist.

Traditional meals using vegetables from the garden

Within the projects supported by Designing Hope, women are invited to cook vegetables from the garden during group activities. This is an opportunity to encourage families to improve their nutrition. At Fundzisa Live’ support group, the women take turns preparing … Read More

Food distribution in Macamabeni Creche

With the support of The Ivory Foundation, Designing Hope supports the Macambeni crèche, and improve the meals of its 20 disadvantaged children with vegetables produced in the garden. Depending on the season and the yield, a supplement is delivered every Monday … Read More

The Hlohlo AME school pump

With support from the Ivory Foundation, a pump was purchased forEkujabuleni School, located 10 km from Piggs Peak. This pump will raise the water from the river located 200 meters below the school tosupply the school’s water reserves.The water, previously treated … Read More

Official visit at Macambeni

The First Secretary of the French Embassy in Mozambique and the Honorary Consul of France in Swaziland went to Piggs Peak to visit the projects supported by the association. Among these, the Macambeni garden, and the crèche supported by the association.

Washing vegetables

Designing Hope undertook an awareness campaign on water saving. The washing of vegetables can be a source of waste, when it is done with running water at the exit of the tank. The purchase of basins for this purpose by … Read More

Harvest of vegetables at St. Paul’s School

Harvest of vegetables in the garden of St. Paul’s School. The children take part to the sowing, the maintenance of the vegetables, the watering and the harvests with a woman from the association Fundzisa Live. assigned to the garden.

Distribution of food parcels

Like every month, twice a week, Fundzisa Live’s women distribute food parcels to the most vulnerable people at Piggs Peak Hospital.

School garden

The garden of HhoHho AME is one of the 5 school gardens set up by Designing Hope in its partner schools.

Planting trees in Macambeni

New trees were planted by the women of Fundzisa Live with the support of the Raja Foundation on the Macambeni Garden. An assortment of fertile trees and fruit trees has been put in place.

Greenhouse seedling preparation

New seedlings were prepared in the nursery at Piggs Peak in Swaziland to provide both the Macambeni Gardens and school gardens supported by Dessine l’Espoir.

New planks of culture on the terrace

The women of Fundzisalive in charge of the garden of Macambeni have prepared new terraced beds of culture in the garden.

Maintenance of the Macambeni Garden – Creation of new planks

The Macambeni Garden has required a lot of work to make it workable, given its sloping configuration. The women of Fundzisa Live work together every week to create new terracing cultivation beds. They also mix fertile and less fertile soil, … Read More

Swaziland – Garden Hospital

The hospital allowed us to increased the size of Designing Hope’s demonstration garden, which allowed us to set up a greenhouse to grow plants, without reducing the surface of the garden grown for the vegetables.

First “One House One Garden”

The women of Fundzisa Live installed the first garden of the “One House One Garden” program. 25 beneficiaries have been identified and will be offered a 25m2 plot of land allowing them to develop a vegetable garden protected from raving … Read More

Preparing meals with vegetables from the garden of macambeni

Macambeni garden vegetables are used to complement the meals served to the children of the day nursery, which welcomes orphaned children in the neighborhood.

2nd “One House One Garden” in Eswatini

The women of Fundzisa Live have installed their second garden of the “One House One Garden” program. 25 beneficiaries have been identified and will be offered an enclosed garden of 25m2 allowing them to develop a vegetable garden protected from … Read More

Peppers harvest !

The children of the Macambeni day orphanage today participated in the pepper harvest in the garden! They will be cooked for them this afternoon as an accompaniment to cornmeal.

Distribution of food parcels

Every month, Fundzisa Live’s women organize the distribution of food parcels to support the weakest HIV-positive patients. Green vegetables from the Macambeni Garden run by the association with support from the Raja Foundation and The Ivory Foundation, are also included … Read More

Greenhouse Construction – Piggs Peak Hospital

In October 2018, we set up, with the support of the Raja Foundation, a greenhouse to grow seedlings on 3 levels on a small space, that can be distributed to HIV patients in the hospital supported by Designing Hope. These … Read More

Vegetable Distributions to HIV+ Patients at Piggs Peak Hospital

Since 2005, Dessine l’Espoir has been supporting HIV-positive patients at Piggs Peak Hospital. For 13 years, the association has been distributing with the local relay of Fundzisa Live, snacks (sandwich and fruit) to the HIV patients of the hospital during … Read More

Food service at Macambeni Center

One of the goals of the Macambeni Garden is to provide fresh vegetables to complement the meals served to children at the Orphan Day Care Center in this disadvantaged neighborhood. Elderly women in the neighborhood are in charge of preparing … Read More

Drawings with the children of Macambeni

The children of the Macambeni center made drawings for the children of the Bercy preschool , as part of the “communicating classes” program, creating exchanges between educational gardens.   These drawings will be given to the children of the Bercy … Read More

First harvest at Macambeni garden

The first harvest of peppers from the Macambeni Garden was offered to the Macambeni day care center in charge of the neighborhood orphans. Designing Hope and Fundzisa Live started the Macambeni garden with 2 objectives: – Provide vegetable for the … Read More

Macambeni garden is changing!

After several weeks of work, the women of the Fundzisa Live association have completed the preparation of the cultivation beds in the Macambeni Garden.   EnregistrerEnregistrer

A nursery for Macambeni garden needs

In order to quickly produce vegetables in the garden, a nursery has been set up in the office of Fundzisa Live Association, located near Macambeni. The plants can be grown with better control of the watering needs, and with better … Read More

Soil preparation at Macambeni Garden

The Macambeni Garden, made available by the city of Piggs Peak to Fundzisa Live, the local partner of Designig Hope in Piggs Peak, presented a challenge in terms of soil preparation. Indeed, this sloping ground had been digged on part … Read More

Preparing the soil for the plant nursery

One of the first steps in APAF’s agroforestry training in Southern Africa was to prepare the nursery for seed sowing. This required identifying local fertilizer trees similar to the seeds to be planted, in order to recover soil near the … Read More

Eswatini – Educational Garden of Hlohlo

During the winter, Swaziland has a dry climate, with sunny days, and quite cold nights. Cabbage, spinach, and salad grow well in these climatic conditions. In this garden at Hlohlo Ame Primary School, crop residues from corn have been used … Read More

Search for indigenous fertilizer trees, Piggs Peak – Swaziland

During the training given by APAF International, Pascal Humbert has been searching for fertilizer trees in the Piggs Peak region. He quickly identified the Leuceana. The Leuceana is a great asset in agroforestry: it fertilizes the soil that nourishes it, … Read More

Macambeni – creation of a pond

Below the garden of Macambeni, a wet area offers accessible water for the garden. In order to facilitate the collection, a small staircase is dug in the slope of the ground, and a small pool allows the water to be … Read More

Macambeni – Preparation of the soil

The first step in taking over Macambeni’s garden consisted in clearing it. Dry grasses, cuts of trees and bushes were recovered to form a compost prepared under a garden tree. The soil extracted below a swamp was used to enrich … Read More

Evolution of Chaya Cuttings

In the space of 2 years, Chaya’s 20 cm cut has become a real bush (right in the photo), which provides leaves for cooking, and can be generously duplicated itself for other projects. This month, cuttings were sent to South … Read More

Macambeni

Macambeni is the name of one of the most disadvantaged districts of Piggs Peak, a city in which Dessine l’Espoir has been developing activities since 2005.In 2017, the city hall of Piggs Peak has given to the association, the management … Read More

Feeding 370 children with permaculture garden in Swaziland

Since 2012, Designing Hope develops permaculture garden in Southern Africa, to help population becoming self sufficient. This video presents a garden in the isolated village of Bulembu, hosting an orphanage. This garden, developed by a team of 6 women trained … Read More

Bulembu Garden

The team of 6 trainers in permaculture from Designing Hope in Piggs Peak have been setting up an experimental garden in Bulembu, border town with South Africa. The experiment involves the use of locally produced biochar, integrated in permaculture raised beds, … Read More

A comic explaining basics of Permacuture.

Designing Hope has produced, with the support of The Ivory Foundation, an illustrated brochure presenting the techniques of permaculture. This document addresses several topics, the creation of raised beds, crops rotation, crops associations, with a focus on milpa, compost… This … Read More

Seeds harvest in Piggs Peak, Swaziland

In Piggs Peak, at Fundzisa Live’s garden, the women in charge of Designing Hope’s Garden Project harvest seeds after each season. They keep the best lettuces for instance, let them grow and then move them out of the garden bed … Read More

Pedagogical gardens in Swazi schools

6 schools are involved on the educational garden projects in Swaziland, within a perimeter of 30km around Piggs Peak and involving 240 children. Liens connexes : Préparation d’une butte Démarrage du jardin à Roosboom Préparation des buttes à Roosboom Bande … Read More