Opening ceremony of the extended Azadi Community Garden
To celebrate the completion of the extension to the Azadi Community Garden in Domiz 1 camp, and to officially open the space, we organised a small opening ceremony and party.
All our new gardeners, who have been given a new raised bed in the extended area, were invited to join our celebration, along with our garden team and seasoned gardeners.
Lemon Tree Trust’s Aveen Ibrahem (Operations Manager) and Hamid Abdullah (Horticulture & Landscape Consultant) opened the extended garden by saying a few words. They were joined by Domiz 1 camp management staff, Adla Husen (Find Monitor), Thahera Adam (Field Officer) and Shahinaz Hnde (Assistant Manager).
After cutting a beautiful celebration cake adorned with pink roses and purple butterflies, we invited our gardeners to spread natural fertiliser on their raised beds, in preparation for seed sowing in the week ahead.
About the Azadi Community Garden extension
In April 2023, we expanded our flagship community garden in Domiz 1 camp, Azadi, to cover an additional 864 square metres. This has enabled us to double the number of raised beds from 50 to 100, ensuring that many more vulnerable families living in Domiz 1 have access to fresh food. As well as boosting food security, the increase in gardening provision will help to improve people’s physical and mental health.
As part of our extension plan, we also intend to set up a marketplace to offer a safe space for our growers to sell produce and for us to sell our herbal tea and plants – with proceeds raised ploughed straight back into Azadi and our community garden activities.
The Azadi garden, which was set up in 2016, is already a thriving hub of gardening activity and friendship – and we look forward to building on its success. As well as tending to vegetables and herbs, Azadi is a place to learn new skills and a haven to meet and socialise.
It’s thanks to the generous donations from our amazing supporters, as well as our brilliant gardening team, that we can increase our gardening activities and build a welcoming community space for Domiz 1 residents.
Our thanks also go to Caritas Iraq who funded and arranged for trainee bricklayers to help with the construction of the Azadi garden extension. The apprentices helped clear the ground and used their blockwork skills to build our 50 new raised beds.
How you can help
We welcome monetary donations to help with the maintenance of the garden and the purchase of seeds and gardening equipment for our 50 new gardeners. Please make a donation if you can.
About Domiz 1 camp
Domiz 1 is a refugee camp located near the city of the Duhok in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). Established in 2012 as a temporary camp to provide shelter to those fleeing the war in Syria, the ‘accidental city’ is now home to more than 32,000 individuals and is expected to remain home for thousands for the long-term. Learn more about daily life in Domiz 1 camp.
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