Lemon Tree Trust
The Phonetic Planet team first became aware of the Lemon Tree Trust a couple of years ago, via social media. It has taken us a little while to secure an interview with a spokesperson from this inspirational initiative but we can assure you that the wait was worth it! Enjoy this short read about the transformative power of gardening as a component of life in some of the world’s most compromised living spaces. Our gratitude goes to Ali at Lemon Tree Trust for taking time out to chat with us.
Children with flower bouquets, photo credit Britt Willoughby
Ali, we’d like to start the conversation by having you tell us about the founding of the Lemon Tree Trust. Whose idea was this, and how did the project first get started?
Lemon Tree Trust was set up by Stephanie Hunt in 2015 to bring gardening activities to displaced communities and survivors of war.
Stephanie served on the UNHCR Board of Trustees for several years and it was during a trip to refugee camps in Jordan – set up in response to the Syrian war – where she first noticed people were gardening, despite everything. She asked people what they needed, and they answered with seeds. Stephanie returned home to the USA determined to help resettled refugee communities in Dallas by establishing community garden sites in the city. The Lemon Tree Trust was established just a few years later to extend this work to the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
Initially we distributed seeds and gardening equipment to families living in refugee and IDP (internally displaced people) camps in the Kurdistan Region to help people get growing at their home shelters. Wanting to do more, in 2016 we built our flagship community garden in Domiz 1 camp – Azadi, which means ‘liberation’ in Arabic – to support women and their children to grow food and flowers for their families. We also launched the Lemon Tree Trust garden competitions, celebrating the ingenuity and creativity of people’s home gardening efforts, while raising awareness about the health benefits of gardening and our work.
Children in their garden, photo credit Dirk Jan Visser
Can you describe for us the weather conditions, and general climate, in which the Lemon Tree Trust operates?
Since 2015 most of our work has been in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, which is in the north of Iraq. We currently work in ten refugee and IDP camps there which are vast ‘accidental cities’, each housing thousands of people in a tightly packed network of neighbourhoods. For much of the year, the weather is dry and hot, and the atmosphere dusty and arid.
That’s why we continue to distribute trees and plants to residents (since 2016, we have planted or distributed more than 300,000 trees and plants). Trees help to transform the urban areas within camps from desolate spaces into productive microclimates, while providing shade, improving the soil and providing wider environmental benefits.
The camps are surrounded by beautiful, natural landscapes. Domiz 1 camp, for example, near the city of Duhok, is not far from the Nineveh Plains and Bekhair mountains. Some examples of spring plants thriving in this area include Anemone coronaria, Prunus, Onosma and Gagea.
Gardeners in the Azadi community garden have spotted butterflies, locusts, birds and even hedgehogs! We try to use natural gardening practices wherever possible to encourage wildlife into the garden and improve biodiversity.
Are the residents of the camps there long-term? How long is the process to move out of the camp(s)? Can you tell us about the countries of origin of the residents? How is their native home different to the weather climate of the camp location?
Refugee and IDP camps are not as temporary as their name suggests – many exist for decades. Once displaced, people usually live in camps for years. The process for moving out of camps largely depends on the situation and safety of a person’s home country and their personal situation with regards to applying for citizenship in another country.
Most people living in the refugee camps in which we work have fled the war in Syria, often from the cities of Aleppo, Al-Hasakeh, Damascus and Qamishli. For IDP camps, many people have moved from Sinjar, Nineveh Governorate, within Iraq, and are of Yazidi and Muslim faiths.
The weather climate in the Kurdistan Region is similar to that of Syria.
Upcycled container planting, photo credit Dirk Jan Visser
Gardeners in the Azadi Community garden, photo credit Dirk Jan Visser
We know that you are investing in the power of gardening as a way to bring more meaning into the lives of the camp residents, and to improve both their physical and mental health. Please tell us about the evolution of the project based on these goals.
With the increasing popularity of the competitions (now an annual fixture), and success of the Azadi community garden, our gardening activities and remit has grown from one camp to ten across the region. This includes extending the Azadi community garden last year, doubling the number of raised gardening beds from 50 to 100, and the current build of a new community garden in Gawilan refugee camp.
Our activities continue to be led by what our beneficiaries are most in need of – so that’s seeds, plants and trees to grow both at home or in a community garden, and a safe place (a community garden) for people to come together, work the land, make new friends and heal trauma.
Anemone coronaria, Nineveh plains, photo credit Britt Willoughby
Gardening is a powerful therapeutic tool, addressing issues of isolation and mental health, producing beauty, belonging, food security, and promising economic stimulation. Our long-term vision is to expose every refugee and IDP camp in the world to garden competitions and gardening initiatives and to encourage self-sustaining ventures run by and for displaced people.
On instagram we can see that you frequently sponsor gardening competitions to encourage the gardeners. How easy is it for people to acquire a plot of garden space? Are the spaces rented? Or allocated?
We run two types of competitions – in addition to the annual garden competitions, we run a ‘Garden of the Month’ prize. We set this up in 2020 as an extension to our annual competitions, to further recognise and encourage people’s gardening efforts.
Depending on the camp in which they live, people reside in a tented shelter or a more permanent dwelling. In the tented camps, growing space tends to be limited, with people growing in small and narrow spaces around their shelters. In more established camps, like Domiz 1, each household is assigned a small plot of land where residents can build their own home with whatever materials they can access, along with gardens in the space around them.
In terms of our community gardens, raised beds are allocated on a first come, first served basis, for a set period of time. Once this ends, we review the waiting list and rotate accordingly, giving as many people as possible access to the garden.
Do children become involved in the gardening process?
Yes, children are encouraged to visit the Azadi community garden with their mother or grandmother to help with crop cultivation. As well as being outdoors in the fresh air, learning about growing food and flowers, they also love to visit our menagerie of animals (chickens, ducks and rabbits) or read a book in our library area.
We also have a community bread oven where delicious flatbreads – called ‘khubz’ in Arabic – are baked daily. Bread is central to Syria's food culture and is an important reminder of home. It’s relatively easy and is an activity that children traditionally help their mothers with from a young age, with skills being passed down from generation to generation.
Grandmother holding child, photo credit Britt Willoughby
We’re so inspired by the positive messaging inherent in this project! Ali, it’s been a privilege to engage in conversation with you. Before we end, can you please share any links to social media accounts relating to the Lemon Tree trust, so that our readers can learn more about your wonderful initiative!
All photos used in this article were provided by Lemon Tree Trust.