PRINCE CHARLES AND SEEDS FOR AFRICA
Prince Charles Visits SfA Fruit Trees in Sierra Leone
The Prince of Wales visited the Methodist Boy’s School in Freetown, Sierra Leone on the 28th November as part of a tour to promote regional stability, national reconciliation, sustainable development and education. 
The school has worked hard to rebuild itself after being on the frontline of a decade long civil war. Albert Bullock, Chairman of the University of Kent based charity Seeds for Africa (SfA) spoke to The Prince, who is a keen gardener, about the support that had been given to the school in 2002 to establish a vegetable garden.
The Chairman said, ‘SfA had supplied indigenous seeds, tools and had shared agricultural advice so that teachers and children could benefit from growing their own food. It was encouraging to see the garden thriving after four years of involvement. While we cannot expect these communities to pull themselves out of the ravages of war, we hope that the Methodist High School for Boys will serve as an example to others and encourage them to follow the same road of independence. Our joint efforts will undoubtedly contribute to a dignified and fruitful future for Africa.’
 The Prince met the Head Boy, 18 year old John Kallon who showed him around the SfA vegetable garden where students were growing Irish sweet potatoes, cassava, cucumber and maize and was then introduced to SfA’s regional horticulturist Abdul Hassan-King. He inspected a selection of 100 fruit trees that SfA were about to plant at the school which included coconut, mango and guava. He showed a particular interest in a local fruit called Pink Apple that he had not seen before.
SfA have established over 1000 projects in 25 different African countries. The charity has most recently launched a nationwide campaign in 2005 called One Tree, to promote the planting of fruit trees in schools in Africa. Albert Bullock explained to the Prince the importance of planting trees to protect the environment and encourage food security. He claimed ‘The fruits from our selected African fruit trees are specifically chosen to prevent diseases which are caused by a lack of vitamins in the diet.’ Before leaving the school, the Prince planted a mango tree to commemorate his visit.
Members of the general public can purchase a fruit tree for £5 online by clicking here, or by contacting Amanda Gerrard on 01227 823202, email amanda@seedsforafrica.org
For further information about the tour, please contact Hannah Howard at Clarence House on 0207 024 5729
New for Spring 2007: Gardens of Goodness in Africa
Seeds for Africa has recently purchased a seven acre site at Mummias in north west Kenya near Lake Victoria. This is a sugar cane growing area not far from the lush Kenyan tea plantation. A Resource Centre is being built by the charity, which will be run by the local community to provide skills and training in agriculture.
 We have now commissioned Canterbury-based environmental artist Shaukat Khan (www.khanart.co.uk and see images in this article, showing his vision for the 'Garden of Goodness') to design a medicinal herb garden at The Resource Centre using indigenous and organic herb plants. The Royal Botanical Garden at Kew UK have a representative in Nairobi who will give advice on the selection of the medicinal plants for this unique ‘Garden of Goodness’.
These indigenous plants are gathered in the wild and are becoming scarcer by the day, so this ‘Garden of Goodness’ will help to preserve the indigenous plants and seeds which will be supplied to other institutes for research and the development of medicine. The plants will be used to improve the health of the local population and plant extracts will be exported to herbalists in Europe to ensure that this project has long lasting financial success. Plants such as Aloe Vera for stomach troubles, Hibiscus for refreshing pick-me-up delicious tea and Rose scented Geranium for the extraction of essential oil will be grown. The herbs grown will be of benefit in the treatment of the whole human body.
The ‘Garden of Goodness’ will also have other sections of organic vegetables, fruit trees and large fishponds, which will improve the diet and nutrition level of the local population. The ‘Garden of Goodness’ will be maintained by a very enthusiastic, Wye College educated Seeds for Africa manager Vincent Musiko. Shaukat Khan will hold environmental art workshops at two schools in Kenya to demonstrate the benefit of tree plantings using art as a medium. This exciting project will include the use of household recycled material to make collages and greeting cards. The children’s art will be displayed at the University of Kent at Canterbury later in the year.
We will of course publish regular updates as the project develops. Look out for the new web-page that we shall devote to it in the near future, with more images by Shaukat Khan.
Our thanks to Mr Shaukat Khan for allowing us to display his paintings.
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