PUPILS from the Bratislava borough of Nové Mesto have embarked on a special project: together with the homeless people, they will keep their own garden. This is one of the winning civic projects to be financed from the so-called participative budget of Nové Mesto.
The garden opened on September 26 at the Elementary School on Sibírska Street in Bratislava.
“For children, the garden with common flower and vegetable beds is a chance for pupils to learn in an ideal and physically undemanding way the truth about how “food grows,” and how to acquire a different relationship towards it,” the headmistress of the school Milena Partelová explained for the SITA newswire.
There will also be a composter built on the plot, and children will learn how to recycle the biological waste and how to use it in growing vegetables.
The homeless will also participate in the project. “The more demanding work in the garden will be done by the homeless people from the day-care integration centre Domec who are, apart from improving their own working habits and social skills, an irreplaceable part of the project,” coordinator of the project Martin Jankovic said. “With this project, we also want to point to the ability and effort of the homeless people to work – and to re-integrate them into society.”
The garden is financed thanks to the participative budget of the Nové Mesto borough, the goal of which is to involve inhabitants in improving the life in Nové Mesto and deciding on how the money from the municipal budget should be distributed.
