RHIANNA McKENZIE
“Mary, Mary, quite contrary. How does your garden grow?”
A once abandoned project space built by the Ministry of Education ten years ago at the St Mary’s Children’s Home for children in Tacarigua has blossomed in recent years into the most popular programme offered at the home.
While the St Mary’s Garden Project does not grow silver bells and cockleshells like the nursery rhyme, its produce is still quite impressive, as it is, for the most part, done by the children at the home.
Newsday was given a tour of the garden and details on the administration’s plans to nurture the children’s new-found interest in agriculture.
The St Mary’s Home, established 166 years ago as a home for orphaned boys of East Indian indentured labourers, is now a home for displaced children. It currently houses 41 children ages five to 17.
Home manager Gwenyth Bleasdell has been at St Mary’s since November 1, 2021.
“I think St Mary’s is one of the best children’s institutions in TT,” she told Newsday. “I believe we will continue to improve and to strive. Prior to me coming in, I had no meaningful impact on what was already good work established by prior management. I walked into a good environment.”
Bleasdell said on her first day she hit the ground running when she was given a tour of the grounds and came across the garden project, led by acting farm manager and dorm supervisor Rubiero Acosta.
She immediately saw the potential of the project and has been working with the team to develop it.
[caption id="attachment_950512" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Gwenyth Bleasdell, manager of the St Mary's Children's Home. - SUREASH CHOLAI[/caption]
“The children have been very serious about the project and all of them get involved at various stages,” Bleasdell said.
Acosta said it is the only project offered at the home in which everyone participates willingly.
Other members of the team include Jamila Guischard who assists on the agriculture committee and Gizelle Burton, programme co-ordinator of the Sow a Seed initiative, the next phase of the project.
The children planted a variety of produce including lettuce, pak choi, chive, pimentos, tomatoes, bhagi, and cucumbers.
“We want to create a self-sustainable system where we can feed the kitchen produce and, once we have an abundance, provide to other homes in the area and beyond,” Bleasdell said.
“We have children here with siblings in other homes and it would be good to allow them to take the day and spend time with their siblings. It would also cut some of the cost for us here.”
She said the home is hoping to partner with companies to get the Sow a Seed initiative off the ground.
“We are also currently in talks with MIC Institute of Technology in certifying the children based on the CVQ (Certificate of Vocational Qualifications) and they are willing to send in teachers to teach agriculture.”
Acosta also said on the other side of the compound, in an area once used as a basketball court, the team would like to launch a hydroponics programme and
