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On Thursday, 24th November 2022, the Oranjemund Town Council in partnership with the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony, and officially handed over the Swartkops Community garden to the local beneficiaries of Swartkops.
At this ceremony, His Worship Elias Kasemba highlighted that the objectives of the community garden is to improve household and community food security, and to promote sustainable livelihoods.
He further stated that this project will boost action for inclusive development, local economic growth and transformation for the Oranjemund community.
Council invested into this project through availing land by de-bushing and preparing the site, providing the necessary planting seeds, fertilizers/compost, pressure sprays for the agricultural project, while TIKA constructed three shade nets, installed a drip irrigation system in each shade net and erected a 10 000-litre water tank on a four-meter-high water tank stand.
“At TIKA we value and recognize agriculture as one of our main agendas since we strongly believe that agriculture ensures food security and contributes to job creation, which ultimately contributes to poverty eradication,” said Aydin Apaydin the Country coordinator.
To ensure sustainability of the project, TIKA facilitated horticulture training to (20) beneficiaries of the Swartkops community garden on the 18th- 19th of November 2022, which will help them to utilize their theoretical and practical knowledge. Approximately 20 direct beneficiaries and 200 indirect beneficiaries from the Swartkops community and the entire town will benefit from this community garden.
The Chairperson of the Swartkops community committee, Naftal Shimwafeni thanked OTC and TIKA for the investment made towards food security.
Swartkop is an informal settlement of about +- 700 residents, located at the entrance of Oranjemund about 6km outside the main townland, Oranjemund Constituency //Kharas Region.
