Gawilan Community Garden Appeal: Thank you for your support in 2024
Thanks to the incredible generosity of supporters in 2024, the Hêvî Community Garden in Gawilan refugee camp has made remarkable progress. Named ‘Hêvî’, meaning ‘hope’ in Kurdish, this garden is now a busy hub, providing a vital area for people to reconnect and build resilience.
Through your kindness, we received £9,207 GBP ($11,268 USD) to our Gawilan Community Garden Appeal. With match funding, this doubles to £18,422 GBP ($22,550 USD), helping us sustain this vital project. Your contributions are directly transforming lives and we cannot thank you enough.
Key achievements at the Hêvî Community Garden
Your donations have made it possible to achieve the following at Hêvî – thank you!
1. Infrastructure
Functionally important items like fencing, gates, an office, storage unit, and water system have been installed.
2. Raised beds
Several raised gardening beds have been built and planted with a variety of crops, including parsley, radishes, greens, spinach, cress, rocket, onions, lettuce and garlic.
3. Bakery house
The newly built bakery house, equipped with two traditional tannour bread ovens, is already in full swing. Women in the Gawilan community have been gathering to bake Syrian flatbreads, sharing stories and laughter as they shape dough and bake it to perfection.
4. Plants and trees planted
435 trees and plants, including grapevine, fig, lavender, acacia, and more, grown in the flagship Azadî Community Garden in Domiz 1 camp, have been successfully moved and planted at the Hêvî garden around the fencing and shared spaces.
These key steps are building a space that will provide fresh food and strengthen the community for years to come. The garden is already thriving and will soon become a lush green space where more people can come together to grow, share, and support each other.
A big thank you to our entire team for making all of this possible. Special thanks to Othman (manager), Hamid (garden designer and project manager), Roken (garden facilitator), and the Azadî team for their ongoing support and advice. Their hard work and expertise have been crucial in moving the project forward.
Plans for expansion
Looking ahead, we hope to build more raised beds so we can welcome more gardeners to grow their own produce and meet with others daily. Plans are also in place to sow wildflower seeds along the borders and community spaces, bringing even more colour and life to the area. Future expansions of the garden will include a playground and a fruit orchard, further enriching the space and strengthening its role as a community hub.
This means that we’re still welcoming donations to help with ongoing running costs and the expansion of the garden. Your continued support will help fund the building of more raised beds and ensure that Hêvî remains a vibrant, thriving space for years to come.
Thank you for your unwavering support in 2024 and beyond – together, we are creating gardens of hope and community.
Get involved
Yesterday, team members Hamid and Othman led a women’s workshop in Hêvî Community Garden, bringing together beneficiaries to learn, share and grow in community. The session began with an introduction to the work of the Lemon Tree Trust, our vision and our ongoing efforts across refugee and IDP (internally displaced people) camps. In places where … Continued
Noora, originally from Damascus, Syria, cooks meals that remind her family of home, using fresh herbs and seasonal produce from her small garden in Gawilan refugee camp, Kurdistan Region of Iraq. “My mother taught me to cook. Now my children help me. I never give up on the recipes that remind me of home,” she … Continued
As we reach the halfway point of 2025, we are delighted to share some of the impact your support has made possible across our projects. Thanks to your support, our projects are creating meaningful change for forcibly displaced communities, improving access to fresh food, mental wellbeing, and opportunities for connection and belonging through community gardening. … Continued