The Phoenix Child Welfare is appealing for sponsorships to revive their hydroponic vegetable garden which helped support the local community.

The Phoenix Child Welfare, a non-profit organisation, in Whetstone, runs a children's home and a shelter for abused women and children called Sahara. It also provides social welfare services to the Phoenix and surrounding communities.

Sham Maharaj, a member of the child welfare's executive committee, said the organisation had started a sustainable vegetable garden in 2021. This was to support the community through the COVID-19 pandemic by teaching people to grow their own vegetables.

"We were providing families with food hampers and it was suggested that we start a garden and help teach people to grow their own vegetables to sustain themselves," said Maharaj.

More than 30 000kg of vegetables, including tomatoes and cabbages, were harvested and used in the children's home and women's shelter, as well as being sold to the community.

In the 300 square metres hydroponic garden, tomatoes were grown, while in the open field they planted brinjal, cabbage, spinach herbs, green peppers and cauliflower.

Tomatoes that were grown at the Phoenix Child Welfare hydroponics garden. l SUPPLIED

"Community members used to buy tomatoes from us for R10 per kilo and sell it for R15, making a small profit for themselves. We encouraged poor people to make a living. The tomatoes we grew were of exceptional quality, big and lasted a long time.

"It was run for two years, but for us to continue, we need R120 000 a year to run such a venture. We have a borehole which feeds the plant. But we need seedlings, special feed for the plant and people to do the feeding. We had sponsorship twice and that dried up. We have not had any luck with additional sponsorship so we had to shut it down," said Maharaj.

Radhika Ramdeen, who works at a doctor's surgery in the area, said people used to look forward to buying the vegetables that were grown at the premises because it was cheap and the quality was very good and it lasted long.

"I used to get the vegetables from the organisation so it was convenient for people from the community to purchase it from us. All the money went to the child welfare. This garden not only benefited the community, especially the elderly and poor, but also the child welfare. It would be good to see it up and running again," said Ramdeen.

Yummy tomatoes from the Phoenix Child Welfare hydroponics garden. l SUPPLIED