Hêvî Community Garden receives new portacabin and essential upgrades
The Hêvî Community Garden in Gawilan camp has recently seen a number of improvements to better support its gardeners.
A new portacabin has been installed at the front of the garden, providing a comfortable space for gardeners to rest and plan their work as the seasons change from summer to autumn in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The portacabin has been fully refurbished with electricity, curtains, notice boards, an air conditioning unit, a strengthened roof, additional lighting and a new wash basin, making it a safe and welcoming hub for our gardeners. In addition, two 2,000 litre water tanks have been installed alongside our other existing tanks to support crop irrigation.
Elsewhere in the garden, ongoing maintenance ensures the community space stays well-organised and productive. Raised beds have been repaired and reinforced, trees along the fence maintained and tied, fencing cleaned, and seeds sown for the autumn growing season. In August, gardeners cultivated more than 900 kg of vegetables in the Hêvî garden to feed their families, including pumpkins, chilli peppers, molokhia, aubergines and more.
‘Hêvî’, which means ‘hope’ in Kurdish, reflects how the community garden supports residents in Gawilan camp, which is home to over 10,000 people and around 2,400 families, most originally from the Syrian cities of Al Hasakah and Aleppo. The garden offers a vital green space where residents can grow fresh, nutritious food, develop practical skills together and feel a sense of belonging and community.
We thank Harikar NGO for supporting the new portacabin and the water tanks, and UNHCR and the DMCR for donating furniture including chairs, tables, a water cooler and the AC unit. Their support ensures the Hêvî Community Garden continues to be a thriving space of community, learning and empowerment for the residents of Gawilan.
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Aveen Ibrahem is Operations Manager at Lemon Tree Trust, overseeing our community gardening and cooking programmes across the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Her work supports activities in Azadî Community Garden in Domiz 1 camp, as well as outreach and coordination across the nine camps where Lemon Tree Trust currently operates. Having lived in Domiz 1 … Continued
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