NECF in partnership with AutoXpress has launched a one year garden project at Nduru-runo primary school!
Nduru-runo Primary School is a public school in Huruma and is run by the central government. The pupil to classroom ratio in this school is 79:1 with a total of 1059 boys and 996 girls. 40% of the students depend on school lunch which is mainly githeri (mixture of beans and maize), the rest either carry packed lunch, go home for lunch or have no lunch. Most of them are from one-parent families and are very poor, with their mothers working minimum wage jobs to earn a small income and as a result, students suffer from a lack of or imbalance of nutrients in their diet. Malnutrition impairs the ability to concentrate, learn and attend school regularly and this is the case at Nduru-runo primary; they had a KCPE mean score of 260 in 2019 and it decreased to 245 in 2020.
Although the school feeding program provides lunch daily, it is not a balanced diet. We believe good nutrition will strengthen the learning potential of students, enable them to learn effectively and thus maximize investments in education. Through our gardening projects, we also promote healthy eating habits, connections to nature, physical activity, and social connectedness.
Nduru-runo has an active 4K club with 50 students however, the biggest barrier to success in the school’s environmental club’s attempts to grow healthy vegetables is lack of farming tools, manure/fertilizer and pesticides.
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After
For this project, AutoXpress provided the necessary farming tools and seeds that were requested by the school which are carrots, onions, coriander, spinach and kale seeds.
On Saturday 14th May, the NECF team had a fun-filled day with the 4K club students to create a seed-bed (a bed of soil in which seedlings are germinated). The students got a chance to physically take part in every step of the planting process and were taught about germination and transplanting of the seedlings that will take place in 2-3 weeks.
Through this project, NECF is able to promote healthy eating habits, connections to nature, physical activity, and social connectedness.
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It was exhilarating to see the students enjoy every bit of the activity and we are looking forward to transplanting the seedlings!