Africa: Whatever happened to the Kenyan farmer who turned a dump into a garden of giveaways?
Thomas Bwire
The 32-year-old part-time driver signed a deal with a local chief for a quarter acre of land to farm, he had planned to sell vegetables to hotels. But during the pandemic, he began supplying free produce to struggling families.
By Thomas Bwire
NPR
Aug 30, 2022
Excerpt:
Before he revamped his farm Edalia supplied vegetables to about 20 people a month. Now he can supply about 250 families. With all this new produce to distribute, the American charity provided financial support to help him introduce a voucher system. Community mobilizers from the Human Needs Project identified vegetable vendors at strategic spots in Kibera, who collect vegetables from Edalia’s farm and hand them out to eligible families who’ve obtained a voucher from the charity.
The World Food Programme and the Nairobi City County are official partners with the farm, too — plaques with their names are nailed to the corrugated metal walls.
There’s even enough extra produce to sell kale, spinach, tomatoes, and lettuce to primary schools. The new income means Edalia and his team are finally earning money from the vegetables.
But the informal nature of veggie distribution that NPR saw in 2020 hasn’t gone away either. If needy families don’t want to use the voucher system they can still casually drop by the farm as they did before. “Oh yes,” Edalia says, “That approach never died.”
One of the new veggie beneficiaries is Soila Amboi, a 33-year-old clothes seller and a mother of three. She says the regular supply of the vegetables has become a relief.
