Dear friends and supporters,

we are delighted to share some great news from our Junior Ranger school gardens with you in this newsletter!

Spring is in full swing in Maun and our ten Junior Ranger school gardens are a hive of activity: seeds are being sown, plants are being planted and crops are being harvested.

Our school garden coordinator Letso is supporting the Junior Rangers and, together with them and their trainers, is developing strategies to overcome the major challenges of soil conditions and water scarcity in summer for sustainable agriculture.

The Junior Rangers at Sedie Primary School are particularly motivated this season. They have doubled the cultivation area of their school garden and have even managed to grow more labor-intensive vegetables.

The abundant harvest enabled the children to take vegetables home and even sell them to neighbors. These successes fill the young gardeners with pride, and they are already considering how they can further expand their garden next season.

We are thrilled by this enthusiasm and recognize the children's special achievements. In Botswana, soil quality is generally not optimal due to the high sand content, and limited water resources are a challenge throughout the year. In fact, most vegetables and fruit are imported from South Africa.

Our Junior Rangers want to prove that sustainable vegetable cultivation is possible in Botswana.

In the school garden of Botswelelo Primary School, where previous harvests had not been optimal, Letso developed a special solution. Together with the trainers, a hydroponics system was installed. This special system is designed for over 400 plants and offers a soil-independent cultivation method that uses nutrient-rich water to optimize plant growth. By introducing the hydroponics system, we are setting an example in Maun for innovative cultivation solutions in times of water scarcity and poor soil quality.

We are also planning to install such a hydroponics system for the Andrew Wellio and Thito Junior Ranger primary schools and the garden of the Bana Ba Letsatsi children's home.

We need your help! If you would like to support our Junior Rangers in growing sustainable vegetables, we would be very grateful for your donation.

The cost of a hydroponics system for each school garden is €1.500.

You can donate directly via our website or by bank transfer:

Knyphausen Foundation

Deutsche Bank

IBAN: DE02 3707 0024 0552 0002 00

BIC: DEUTDEDBKOE

Thank you in advance for your support of our environmental and educational projects! Together, we can make a difference and give the children and young people in Maun a future with sustainable nutrition.

We wish you a wonderful fall!

Best regards from Maun, Botswana,

Yours sincerely, Theda Gräfin Knyphausen

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