“We had so many flowers in Syria. This garden makes me happy.”
Lemon Tree Trust announces new projects in Greece to mark World Refugee Day weeks after first ever ‘refugee garden’ at RHS Chelsea Flower Show
A month after our refugee-inspired garden was showcased at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, a first in the show’s 150 year history, we are pleased to announce we have new projects underway in Greece. Working alongside field partners Metadrasi in Athens and on Lesvos and Lighthouse Relief in Ritsona camp, the Lemon Tree Trust is now supporting the creation of gardens for unaccompanied children.
We asked a 9 year old girl, who now lives unaccompanied in Ritsona, how the garden project makes her feel. She said: “We had so many flowers in Syria. This garden makes me happy.”
The announcement comes during World Refugee Week, in which global immigration policies are under renewed scrutiny. Latest UN Refugee Agency figures, announced this week,[1]set the number of displaced people globally at 68.5 million, the highest ever in modern history.
Stephanie Hunt, founder and CEO of the Lemon Tree Trust, says:
“Here at the Lemon Tree Trust, we are honoured to work with refugees everyday. Gardening has the power to aid and accelerate the process of healing and this is as true for children as it is adults. We support garden initiatives in Greece for unaccompanied children…projects designed to interest the children in nurturing plants to aid their physical and mental wellbeing as well as occupying them on a daily basis.”
The Lemon Tree Trust, established in 2015, supports gardening initiatives in refugee communities as a way to restore dignity, purpose and cultural identity. The Trust helps bring people together through the provision of seeds and plants, garden competitions and education centres.
To support our work please consider making a donation here. 100% of voluntary donations are used to fund projects in refugee camps.
[1]UNHCR Global Trends 2017 http://www.unhcr.org/globaltrends2017/
Find out more
For more information about the work of the Lemon Tree Trust or to find out about partnership opportunities please contact us.
Many thanks to Megan Davis at Perennial Gatherings for her generous donation this May, the latest in a series of kind contributions to Lemon Tree Trust over the years. Perennial Gatherings is a Vancouver-based floral studio and social enterprise, specialising in thoughtfully curated arrangements made with locally grown, seasonal blooms. Profits from floral sales are … Continued
Each month, our teams visit home gardens across nine camps in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq to select a Garden of the Month winner. This April, we are delighted to celebrate nine gardeners whose creativity, commitment and passion for growing have transformed the spaces around their home shelters. Why the award matters In camps where … Continued
This spring, Othman Qewas, our Hêvî Community Garden manager, has been visiting schools in Gawilan camp, distributing tree and flower seedlings to children and introducing Lemon Tree Trust’s work to a new generation of young growers. Othman visited all five primary schools in Gawilan camp in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, reaching 124 pupils. At … Continued