Walvis Bay mayor applauds community for backyard gardens

Walvis Bay Mayor, Alderman Immanuel Wilfried applauded members of the Walvis Bay community for playing an important role in sustaining and contributing to their own wellbeing by creating backyard gardens during the coronavirus outbreak.

During a backyard garden event held on Friday, Wilfried said that with this project a difference can be made in the communities, which includes residents learning and practicing skills to empower themselves and others around them by creating gardens in their backyards and planting vegetables.

Food security

“The aim is to empower local communities to ease some of the food shortage effects from Covid-19 and to promote urban agriculture by encouraging residents to grow their own food in their limited backyard space,” the mayor said.

The Municipality of Walvis Bay and Food Namibia launched the backyard garden project as a mitigation measure to provide a means for residents to sustain themselves during these trying times.

Manfried Likoro of Food Namibia said that their hope is for each and every Namibian to have gardens in their backyard, allowing people to have a more immediate connection to their food.

“We will be doing follow-ups to see how well the beneficiaries are tending to their gardens, and those that perform will be given more vegetable seedlings to expand their gardens,” Likoro said.

A total 150 participants from the Erongo Region are expected to benefit from the project, where they will be equipped with capacity building and skills to establish and care for backyard vegetable gardens. The pilot project took place in Walvis Bay, Swakopmund and Okombahe. - Nampa