Tipperary gardener grows in solidarity with people of Nairobi

Gillian Kingston, Christian Aid’s representative at Roscrea Methodist Church and a green-fingered Shinrone woman, has been growing vegetables in repurposed containers in an effort to raise awareness of a Christian Aid funded project that’s helping to reduce poverty and malnutrition among low-income families in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

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Gillian holds regular coffee mornings at Roscrea Methodist Church to raise funds for the charity’s work, and her fundraising events are generously supported by all the churches in Roscrea as well as the wider community.

Gillian was pictured showing off the cabbage and lettuce plants she’s been growing in empty milk containers and tin cans, inspired by an urban farming project in Nairobi that’s helping people to grow vegetables in cramped city spaces, enabling them to produce enough food to feed their families and surplus to sell for an income.

With space in short supply, the vegetables are grown on rooftops, vertically on walls and on any available scrap of land, often using repurposed containers such as plastic yogurt pots and discarded tin cans.

Gillian’s act of solidarity comes ahead of Christian Aid Week (10 to 16 May) which this year focuses on the charity’s work to help people living in poverty in a low-income neighbourhood in the Kenyan capital.

In the densely packed streets and alleyways of Dagoretti, almost 300,000 people live in rented one-room homes built from corrugated metal sheets, without basic services such as toilets and running water. Secure jobs are hard to find, and most people earn less than a dollar a day which means that many parents struggle to buy healthy food to feed their children.

Learn more about the work of Gillian, and what they’re doing for the people of Dagoretti, at the Christian Aid website.

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