Rooftop Garden in Tel-aviv unites Refugees and Locals

Today i want to share with you a wonderful and quite unique project that i had a pleasure to be a part of.

A brief Introduction

Tel Aviv's, "Neve Sha'anan" neighborhood is probably the most notorious neighborhood in the city.
Among the tens of thousands of migrant workers, war refugees, old houses and garbage in the streets, one can almost forget that this is Israel.

Street sign pointing to the main street of the neighborhood

The story is about this wonderful building...the rooftop has a green surprise :)

When you arrive to the place its hard to prepare your self for the sights and smells that were going to greet you. A sharp smell of urine, dirty walls and quantities of garbage in the stairwell make you realize how great the alienation and estrangement among the occupants of the building was, so great that the stairs and lobby became a kind of a 'war zone' that nobody cares about.

A stairwell of the building. there are over 20 apartments in this building, split into the smallest possible rooms that can be rented. The condition's are very bad, but dont be mistaken a tiny room in a place like this in Tel-aviv can cost you over 550 USD a month...Israel is not cheap

The Vision: Urban Agriculture as a tool to strengthen weakened communities

A lot can be said about the benefits that advance urban agriculture can bring to the lives of city dwellers. Since it allows growing fresh produce without the need for chemical pesticides, will help reducing the accumulated air pollution due to the process of photosynthesis of plants, eliminate the need to fuel thirsty, polluting food transportation, Will save up to 90% of the water compared to land crops, create jobs and promote a healthier and more environmentally friendly lifestyle.

But what is not taken into account, apparently because it does not have immediate economic advantages, is the positive social impact that is observed in places where the unity of destiny blurs the differences between the social layers.

The idea behind this specific project and future ones to come, is based on the idea that urban agriculture models can strengthen weak communities in cities and change public consumption habits to a healthy and local diet.

In addition, citizens can be trained to grow at least part of the food they consume daily, through simple processes and utilisation of existing technologies and techniques that will advance them to at least partially sustainable and cost-effective way of life.

The project began with the recruitment of the residents of the building to the "multi-cultural rooftop garden project"

The residents of the building come from various countries like: Nigeria, China, Eritrea, Sudan, Darfur, Russia, Ukraine and Israel.

They do not have a common language, they work very hard and lack the ability to create interactions with people from different cultures, which makes it difficult to develop good neighborliness.
Everything in their life is temporary, so they have no reason to invest in making contact.

The project started with the help of the only Israeli tenant of the building, with a past and present social activism tendencies he was eager to join an innovative and social venture such as this and help advance it.
They knocked on doors and tried to explain the other tenants what is planned to happen,
Luckily they understood that this was something good that was going to happen on the roof.

Simple presentation of the plan, and it didnt take long to get everybody excited and after a while other tenants started to take out buckets with water and mops and clean the stairwell (something that wasnt done for years).
There was a certain awakening, an excitement in the air, everybody felt like there was something good happening.

Today, the building smells better, clean and no one is throwing his garbage in the corridor. "

A project in the making: volunteers and residents working together

From Vision to Reality: A “multi-cultural urban agriculture project” is taking shape

Apart from the fact that this is a fascinating concept, this civic initiative is proof that an idea with a real vision can take shape and become a reality quite quickly, even without the funding of councils or municipalities.

The PH is being tested in a hydroponic system constructed from a concrete pool and floating polystyrene floats.

In this case, for example, all the hydroponic an auxiliary equipment, together with the plants and everything required for the initial setup, was donated by local entrepreneurs and companies while the work itself was done by residents and volunteers who enlisted to support, assist and influence.

A vertical hydroponic tower is planted with 44 herbs and greens

Since the beginning of this project, we held numerous workshops and training sessions on the roof for the residents, the people from around the neighborhood and even for other interested parties.

The tenants received instructions and tools on how to maintain the hydroponic systems on a regular basis

A Nutrition Film technique (NFT) hydroponic system growing 38 plants, was donated by one of the local companies, a new DWC system (Deep water culture) was built in a DIY method together with the building's residents in a concrete pool with floating rafts, and as a Grand Finale a vertical hydroponic tower, using advanced hydroponic growing methods was installed.

After the first few month, that little roof was growing a few hundred seedlings.

And as there were no steady supply of electricity, all the systems were powered through an array of solar panels.

Solar Panels powering all of the systems on the roof.

The project is alive and kicking: extensive activity and scholarships for students

A Multicultural Rooftop Garden' - A Social Project with Civil Initiative

Everybody standing while I am working, LOL :)

Every Saturday we held workshops, trainings and made upgrades to the hydroponic garden and each time more and more people were exposed to the healing and growing power of urban agriculture.

Peppers growing on the in the rooftop garden

Companies and other organizations started to send teams of people sometimes as a corporate social activity and sometimes in attempt to see the how this project influenced the neighborhood and perhaps how to reproduce it in other places.

a Hydroponic urban farming workshop is taking place on the roof

Thats me, explaining a group of visitors about a Deep Water Culture Hydroponics

After a while even the local Tel-Aviv municipalities started to pay attention and currently the model is being examined and tested out to see whether similar activities will be promoted and financed by it
In the meantime, the municipality has opened a new scholarship program for students living in Jaffa, Shapira, Neve Sha'anan and Hatikvah neighborhoods (similar “bad” neighbourhoods) , and provides them with grants in return for 40 annual hours of activity in the “multi-cultural rooftop garden”

A group of volunteers and residents taking pictures with their harvest

The final words

In my opinion initiatives such as this doing great job in demonstrating the concept of urban agriculture on its social, ecological and economic aspects and inspiring a welcoming and fruitful civil cooperation through the use of technological and educational solutions.

Urban agriculture is increasingly accepted by local municipalities worldwide and it is reasonable to assume that such civil movement will bring about a real change in the definitions and procedures of the municipalities regarding these new farmers.

I believe that we need government incentives and tax breaks are needed to help promote urban agriculture and attract new investors and entrepreneurs to develop this wonderful idea.
Because after all, we live in a world that is in distress of water, lack of fertile soil, pollution, malnutrition, and there is no question that modern, technological, urban agriculture is an excellent idea that might help us partly solve some of those issues.

I am proud to be part of such amazing initiatives, it shows that there is power in unity, perhaps an ultimate one...
I believe if we all put aside our differences and concentrate on achieving a certain goal together, nothing can stop us..

Thanks you for listening to my story Steemians, please enjoy some additional pictures from the "Multicultural Rooftop Farm" in Tel aviv.