Meet Vanessa!

Vanessa is 12 years old with a very strong character. She doesn’t hold back her opinion and is very direct with the orphanage staff and the other children. Most times, she’s just outright mean.

She’s been at the orphanage for the last nine years since she was dropped off by her mother, who was caring for four other children and addicted to drugs. From the very beginning, Vanessa got off to a difficult start in life.

When Create Purpose first came to her orphanage three years ago, Vanessa wanted nothing to do with the programs. She’s incredibly smart and did not want to learn with other children whom she felt were inferior. Sure, she would attend the Garden-Based Learning Program but most times, she would require all the attention from the teachers. The moment she didn’t understand something or wanted to do another activity, she would run out of the garden in a tantrum or yell at the top of her lungs so that nobody else could pay attention to the lesson.

Here’s the thing about our Garden-Based Learning Program; yes, children are learning ‘hard skills’ like how to compost, maintain healthy soil, and when harvest. More importantly, however, children are developing ‘soft skills’ like Collaboration, Communication, Confidence, and Creativity. Children work together in class to achieve a common objective. They share their experiences in groups. They take turns watering and planting, and composting, working in a team to maintain a healthy garden.

Here we are three years later and Vanessa still isn’t the most patient child or the easiest to deal with. But now her tantrums involve her going to a corner of the garden to play with the worms. She digs her hands in the soil, runs the worms through her fingers and talks to them. Occasionally, she’ll spend the entirety of the class there. Sometimes she’ll rejoin the group and finish the lesson. Orphanage staff tell us that this change in behavior has transferred over to everyday life as well. She’s more patient than before. She acts up less in school. She still yells, but hey, which 12 year-old doesn’t?

Vanessa told us that she wants to be a teacher when she grows up. More specifically, she wishes to be a Garden-Based Learning teacher. How cool is that? She would like to learn everything that she can about gardening so when she has a beautiful home of her own, she can also have a beautiful garden. She is begging us to plant fruit trees. She doesn’t care which ones as long as she can come out to the garden and eat fruit whenever she wants.