Lemon Tree Trust gifts plants to children with special educational needs and disabilities in Gawilan camp
Inside the polytunnels at the Hêvî Community Garden in Gawilan refugee camp, Garden Manager Othman Qewas carefully selects fruit trees and flowering plants grown from seed. Joined by Hamid Abdullah, Lemon Tree Trust’s Horticulture and Landscape Consultant, the plants are loaded into the car before setting off to visit families across the camp.
As part of our ongoing children’s outreach programme in Gawilan camp, the team visited fourteen children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), sharing six plants with each child to grow with their family at their shelter. Each child also received a pair of headphones and a Lemon Tree Trust badge.
Othman shared: “Seeing the children’s faces light up when we arrived was really special. We grow these plants here in Gawilan and it’s wonderful to see them become part of more family gardens across the camp.”
The visit builds on our recent programme of children’s activities across the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and Syria, including environmental workshops at the Hêvî Community Garden and school outreach in Gawilan camp, where children have explored gardening, biodiversity and the importance of caring for the environment.
Photos and film by Ronak Qewas, a journalist from Kobani, Syria, who was forcibly displaced by war in 2015 and lives in Gawilan camp.
The plants shared during the visit were grown in the Hêvî Community Garden’s polytunnels as part of Lemon Tree Trust’s wider propagation programme. Throughout the year, the Hêvî Community Garden and our flagship Azadî Community Garden in Domiz 1 camp raise thousands of young trees, flowers and edible plants for distribution to families living in refugee camps, internally displaced people (IDP) camps and neighbouring host communities. By helping people establish home gardens at their shelters, the programme supports greener neighbourhoods, strengthens connections with nature and enables families to create healthier places to live.
Read more about our recent children’s outreach:
Inside the polytunnels at the Hêvî Community Garden in Gawilan refugee camp, Garden Manager Othman Qewas carefully selects fruit trees and flowering plants grown from seed. Joined by Hamid Abdullah, Lemon Tree Trust’s Horticulture and Landscape Consultant, the plants are loaded into the car before setting off to visit families across the camp. As part of our ongoing children’s outreach programme in Gawilan camp, … Continued
Bringing together residents to celebrate the home gardens they have grown, tended and transformed over the past year, Lemon Tree Trust’s 2026 Annual Garden Competitions have taken place across nine refugee and IDP (internally displaced people) camps in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. This year’s competitions introduced a greater emphasis on welcoming new participants alongside … Continued
Girls and boys living in Gawilan refugee camp have come together for child-focused environmental workshops at the Hêvî Community Garden, brought to life by Lemon Tree Trust and the General Directorate of Social Care in Duhok (DoLSA). The workshops form part of the Child Protection and Climate Change Campaign, through which UNICEF supports DoLSA in … Continued