GIZ Innovation Fund Award Ceremony: Circular Urban Garden Takes the Prize
On Wednesday, June 5th, our Director had the honor of attending the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) event to receive the winner's trophy for the Development Agency's International Innovation Award. Our Circular Urban Garden project was selected as one of the two winning teams out of hundreds of worldwide submissions, highlighting our innovative approach to improving food security and economic prosperity for women in informal settlements and refugee camps.
The journey of our Circular Urban Garden began in July last year with the submission of our idea. Over the following months, numerous follow-up activities and extensive fine-tuning led to our project being continually advanced. Carla Heimann, our assigned GIZ mentor, played a pivotal role throughout this process. Her technical skills, attention to detail, and determination to succeed were invaluable. Despite her background as a lawyer, Carla became an enthusiastic student of farming, inspiring both myself and Alice, our resident gardener, to push the project to new heights.
In December, Carla, Alice, Faith (our other GIZ mentor) and I traveled to Germany to participate in a three-day workshop alongside five other international nominations. Each milestone we achieved during this workshop increased our confidence that our project was meeting all the criteria, including addressing the first two UN Sustainable Development Goals of No Poverty and Zero Hunger.
The signature feature of our garden is its clever use of space, resources, affordability, and adaptability in size, depending on the available resources. The circular nature of the garden stems from the complementarity of different farming activities, ensuring sustainability and efficiency. This innovative design was showcased during an online event earlier this year, where all six finalists presented their projects. It was at this event that our Circular Urban Garden was chosen as the winner of the GIZ Innovation Award.
Winning this award, which includes a prize of €10,000, will enable us to roll out training and fund the establishment of many gardens in both slums and refugee centers in northern Kenya. Currently, Ruben Centre has welcomed Joy, a graduate of Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), who is leading the way in establishing the Black Soldier Fly (BSF) component of the circular garden. The BSF project is crucial as it produces food for fish and chickens, as well as fertilizer for the garden, making the garden economically sustainable for financially struggling residents of informal settlements and refugees.
Ruben Centre is delighted with this outcome and we are fully committed to making a difference in empowering some of the poorest people in Africa. The inclusion of our Circular Urban Garden in a massive project in South Sudan as part of a new GIZ initiative to improve food security and economic prosperity for women is a testament to the project's potential. By allowing families, particularly women, to achieve food security, reduce hunger and malnutrition, and create economic opportunities, our garden represents a sustainable and climate-resilient solution born out of the Ruben Centre.
We are grateful for the support from GIZ and excited to see the positive impact our project will have on communities across Africa and the world.
