Sri Lanka: Regenerating Sustainable Practices Through Simple Actions

Sustainable Cities has worked with communities in Sri Lanka for most of the last decade on projects in urban greening and post-tsunami recovery. This Christmas, we are supporting our former colleague, Sumana Wijeratna’s work - through her organization VanLanka -to reduce poverty and empower women and youth through urban and traditional agriculture.

In Sri Lanka, there is high unemployment in slums mainly among unskilled youth and women leading to increased poverty, vulnerability towards drugs, crime and is a waste of human resources.

At the same time there is a labour deficit in rural agriculture due to youth and women leaving villages for cities or abroad resulting in significant underutilized farm land. Rural farms also face high costs related to modern and industrial farm practices, the use of chemicals and fertilizer, lack of storage facilities and lack of proper marketing. In the dry zone in eastern Sri Lanka, all these issues combine with 30 years of war to severely hamper the agricultural sector, threatening food security for the whole country.

Vancouver: Aboriginal Mother Centre Society

The Aboriginal Mother Centre Society was founded in 2002 to address and to provide services to the needs of Aboriginal mothers and their children.

A disproportionate number of Aboriginal women across Canada and most particularly in the downtown eastside of Vancouver live in poverty, homelessness, fear of violence, isolation, addiction, loss, and degradation. As mothers, these women face greater chances to experience loss and profound pain as their children are born into a high-risk environment or are taken away to another high-risk environment. Opportunities are limited for these women to recover, to acquire economic security and to provide self-sufficient family lives for their children.

The Aboriginal Mother Centre Society in partnership with Luma Native Housing and Builders Without Borders will complete its renovations to the 28,000 Sq ft building at 2019 Dundas Street in East Vancouver in December of 2010.

Dar es Salaam: Mikocheni School Urban Agriculture Project

What can you do with sawdust, kitchen scraps, and a few dirt plots? Well, add in many eager students and teachers and you have a perfect mix. Supported by our local Project Team and interns, the Mikocheni Post Primary Vocational School (Dar es Salaam, Tanzania) decided to become a learning centre for waste separation, composting, and growing food in the city, especially for the surrounding unplanned settlement. The School trains students, who have graduated from primary school but for various reasons cannot attend secondary school, in four vocational skills - tailoring, cooking, masonry, and carpentry. These activities fit the project perfectly too: the masonry students will build the composting chambers, the carpentry and cooking students contribute organic waste, and everyone at the school takes turn attending the food gardens. The food harvested is then invested back into the school as teaching material and nutrition for all. Hurrah to closed-loop systems!