IN an attempt to give learners the necessary practical experience and simultaneously honour youth who were killed in gang violence, the community of Schauderville launched a project to create a “wall of remembrance”.
A group of learners from David Livingstone Secondary School, excitedly walked across the street to the Neave Street Park on Thursday, March 5, where they were taught how to plant trees by local landscape artist, Diego Boesak.
Community leader, Edward Camealio, said that the focus of the project is to help these learners develop their practical skills, since the school has been under construction for more than two years and doesn’t have the necessary space to plant trees.
Camealio and Boesak, who has his own nursery and will donate some of his plants as the project continues, decided to also decorate the wall behind the trees and to call it the Garden of Hope.
“As the learners work on the garden, I want them to think of those who lost their lives and hope that it will motivate them to make wise choices regarding their own lives. It will also be a place to visit for victims of gang violence and others who have been affected by it,” Camealio said.
Boesak said that after planting the trees, the next step was to have to learners make wooden frames as part of their woodwork class at school and to mount them on the wall of the garden.
The faces of gang violence victims will then be formed inside the frame, also using wood. Boesak will be mentoring the learners throughout the process.
“I’m glad to be in a position to help the community and this is something that could benefit both the youth and the elderly,” he said.
According to Camealio, this would also teach these teenagers to appreciate and care for the park since they had worked on it themselves. “I also want to thank horticulturist, Liwa Monel, for donating the trees and making this possible,” he added.
One of the teachers at the school, Mandy de Monk, said that the staff were just as excited about this project as the learners because these youngsters were giving back to the community. “It gives them a sense of self-worth, knowing that they are doing something for others,” she said.
“All of us here want to learn something and have a better life, that’s why we are happy to give back to the community,” a learner, Yolisa Pipe (17), said.
“We would love to keep working on this project.”
Ward councillor, Andy Jordan, made an appeal to residents to take ownership of the park as it belongs to the community.
“It’s great that there are communities where people like Diego Boesak make use of their talents to beautify the park,” he said.
The trees planted included spekboom, which is known to target carbon emission like no other plant and can live up to 200 years.
