Cathedral High School students worked together to grow geraniums, which were then donated for neighbourhood beautification projects funded by HCF small grants.
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Somalis feel they belong Planting garden makes them part of Beasley community
Photo: Cathie Coward, the Hamilton Spectator
From left, Halima Aden, Besharo Ali and Hadsen Mohamed worked with other friends to create a vegetable garden in a John Street back yard.
By Daniel Nolan
Story from The Hamilton Spectator (Sep 29, 2006)
Anab Musse and her gardening friends now feel as if they belong in the neighbourhood.
The Somali-Canadian and about two dozen other women oversaw the planting of a garden in the Beasley Neighbourhood during the summer.
They tended to the garden in the back yard of a John Street North home every day and the 1,200-square-foot garden wound up producing 200 tomatoes, 150 hot peppers, plus squash, beans, sweet basil, mint, cabbage, spinach and lettuce. The bounty was shared with about 40 people within Hamilton's Somali community.
Musse, 57, a leader in the Somali community, said the gardeners benefited from operating the garden by knowing they can run such a project here in Canada -- they had gardens in Somalia -- "and to show Canadian society that we're contributing our part."
"When you get involved, you feel part of the community," said social worker Phillip Downer, who helped the women with the garden. "They feel like they're belonging."
The Beasley/Somalia Community Garden was one of 22 programs honoured last night at a community celebration held at Cathedral High School. The celebration was hosted by the Hamilton Community Foundation, which is in the fourth year of its Growing Roots, Strengthening Neighbourhoods program for residents in the neighbourhoods of Beasley, Landsdale, McQuesten East and McQuesten West.
The foundation, which presented operators of the programs with a special certificate, funded them all with $20,000 in grants. It gave the Somalian women $1,100 to start the garden and they were assisted by workers from the Urban Core Community Health Centre.
More than 100 people attended the celebration, including Mayor Larry Di Ianni, Deputy police Chief Eric Girt, school board trustee Judith Bishop and artist Shirley Elford.
Mark Chamberlain, chair of the foundation, said the purpose of Growing Roots is to help make the communities better places to live by engaging those who live in them.
It has supported 64 projects since its inception.
Other programs honoured included Drop your M.O.P.S. (Mothers of Pre-Schoolers), a social and recreational program for mothers and their preschool children; Cooking for a Crowd, a parents' group from Sanford Avenue School, and A Day at the Mall, An Evening in the Park, which helps seniors overcome the feeling of isolation during the Christmas holidays.