You know when you have that thing that just lights a fire in you? That purpose or project or connection that just pulses through you in a palpable profound way. That inspiration that just pulls you and speaks to you, that place that feels more spirit-filled than any church you’ve ever been to. The Ka Hale A Ke Ola Homeless Shelter Garden is this for me. She won’t let-me let-her go. And right now, we need a miracle so that this program can continue. For those of you not yet familiar with the Garden at KHAKO- in late 2011 we received a grant from the Center for Disease Control- aimed at “Reducing Health Disparities among Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islanders and Low-Income communities”. It was at this time that I began realizing that all of the the communities facing the highest level of health disparities, were also all considered “food deserts”- areas where there just wasn’t access to local-affordable real-food (let alone organic food, farmers markets, community gardens etc..). One of the sites that had a very high population of health disparities was the Homeless Shelter in Wailuku (next to the prison). With this grant we could have just paid for food to be brought into the shelter each week, but we decided that the best thing we could do to create lasting change, would actually be to Grow the Change we wanted to see in this community- one seed at a time...with creating a garden. The only site that we were allowed to use for the garden was a sandy-drainage ditch behind the shelter. It was going to take a miracle to transform this drainage ditch into a garden...and the miracle showed up...first, with a 7 year old girl named Destiny- who lived at the shelter. She began showing up each week, with more and more of her friends, and soon we had a legion of keiki angels planting fruit trees, building compost, and even installing irrigation into the garden. Each plant that went in had the prayers of the kids as they pat each plant into the soil...saying Welcome Home. The garden has produced record harvests...providing hundreds of pounds of organic produce and herbs for the keiki programs and the shelter each month, and the garden has created a space for what Dr Pang calls “accidental exercise”...increasing physical activity remarkably among the residents at the shelter. But something really profound has happened that I hadn’t planned for initially…the garden has GROWN beyond being just a garden. This garden began to teach me and show me the myraid of other things that these communities didn’t have access to. I began to research why these communities not only had the highest health disparities, but also the highest drop-out rate, rates of teen-pregnancy, domestic violence, incarcerations, suicide and much more. What would happen to these statistics if we worked on the larger picture of equality and we bring in access to some of the other resources that so many wealthier communities have access to (the arts, music, counseling, tutoring, mentorship and personal-growth-development, sciences and exploration, Hawaiian studies and hula, expression and story-telling, natural-building classes, Job/skills training, la’au lapa’au and Nutrition/Healthy Cooking classes). So, we just began doing it. We didn’t wait for permission, or write it up in a giant proposal- just little by little week by week, we began bringing in mentors where we could, bringing in artists, and musicians, teaching classes...and more and more people began showing up. It has become an Empowerment Garden, a Peace Garden, an Educational garden, a Healing garden and it is lifting up these children, and lifting up this community in a profound way. We now teach back-to-back classes each Tuesday with the kids ranging in ages from 2-18, we are working with the substance-abuse counseling group, and the life-skills classes, numerous highschools and the Juvenile delinquent center boys in the garden. Last November, in the height of our success with the program, we were given the unfortunate news that all of our funding had been cut, and all of the garden programs were over- just like that. It has been a difficult thing to make sense of, and life has given me some time to really step back, and reflect, and re-assess everything. What became incredibly clear in this time is that it was not non-negotiable for us to give up on this project. For many of the children there, it was the one safe, stable, peaceful place they had in their lives...and the one place that really gave them a sense of Home. So,...we just kept showing up...my angel Melissa Connelly and her assistant Peggy driving all the way out from Hana every week just to show up week-after-week consistently for the kids. By the grace and kindness from some of you (Dania Katz, Evan Ryan, Laith and Johnny) we have been able to supplement the healthy food program so that the kids get healthy organic snacks or juices each week with us in the garden. This time has allowed us to see just how important this program is to this community, and we are fully committed and determined to make sure that this program gets the funding it deserves so that it can serve this community. I have applied for this grant with Seeds of Change. It happens to be one of those grants that are given based on votes (daily)...and I just checked the site to find out that there are a TON of applicants. Its a humbling process as my unedited 900 words is all anyone gets to read in order to understand the importance of these programs. We dont have any PR, Twitter, Marketing, or Media team on this...but I’m praying for a David-and-Goliath intervention. What we do have is all of you- my incredible community and friends and networks...and this is really about the power of community right now. Communities raising up Communities. So...Starting today...If you might just add one thing into your routine for 20 days…(like lent except you aren’t denying yourself anything :) Just click on this link below...vote for the Ka Hale A Ke Ola garden...and share this project with everyone that you can. We are all in this canoe together, what we do to one of us we do to all of us. https://seedsofchangegrant/GalleryDetail.aspx?id=5cb472ce-211a-4eae-8293-d1b34658894b&share “If youve come here to help me, youre wasting your time. But if youve come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.” ― Aboriginal Elder Lilla Watson
Posted on: Tue, 01 Apr 2014 22:06:08 +0000
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