Daily chores at the Rainier Beach Urban Farm and Wetlands Preserve, and the skills and decision-making required to keep the enterprise going, are aimed at teaching professional and leadership skills to recent arrivals to the U.S.
By Kibkabe Araya, Seattle Times
(Nasra Kassim, originally from Kenya, is in the shade by the chicken enclosure after visiting with youngsters in a farm camp program. In the morning she gathered blueberries at the Rainier Beach Urban Farm and Wetlands Preserve.)
Among the rows of green, leafy vegetables, Ikram Said waters a row of seedlings, eager to see them mature into Italian parsley and Georgia collards.
On a 10-acre swath in South Seattle, Said, 16, and other immigrants from East Africa are adjusting to their new home by helping to run a farm.
Daily chores at the Rainier Beach Urban Farm and Wetlands Preserve, and the skills and decision-making required to keep the enterprise going, are a new part of the curriculum for a program aimed at teaching professional and leadership skills to recent arrivals.
During the summer, the teenagers spent Fridays at the farm, and while tending to the fruits and vegetables they often worked alongside older East African immigrants volunteering there in hopes of becoming farmers.
Born in Ethiopia, Said and her family lived in Kenya before coming to Seattle in January. School in Kenya was unaffordable, but here she's a high-school student and now, a budding farmer.
"We came here to lead a better life here, you know. It's good here. It's better than Kenya," she said. "I'm having fun because I'm learning how to plant. I feel happy. I never done this job before. I'm happy."
By Kibkabe Araya, Seattle Times
(Nasra Kassim, originally from Kenya, is in the shade by the chicken enclosure after visiting with youngsters in a farm camp program. In the morning she gathered blueberries at the Rainier Beach Urban Farm and Wetlands Preserve.)
Among the rows of green, leafy vegetables, Ikram Said waters a row of seedlings, eager to see them mature into Italian parsley and Georgia collards.
On a 10-acre swath in South Seattle, Said, 16, and other immigrants from East Africa are adjusting to their new home by helping to run a farm.
Daily chores at the Rainier Beach Urban Farm and Wetlands Preserve, and the skills and decision-making required to keep the enterprise going, are a new part of the curriculum for a program aimed at teaching professional and leadership skills to recent arrivals.
During the summer, the teenagers spent Fridays at the farm, and while tending to the fruits and vegetables they often worked alongside older East African immigrants volunteering there in hopes of becoming farmers.
Born in Ethiopia, Said and her family lived in Kenya before coming to Seattle in January. School in Kenya was unaffordable, but here she's a high-school student and now, a budding farmer.
"We came here to lead a better life here, you know. It's good here. It's better than Kenya," she said. "I'm having fun because I'm learning how to plant. I feel happy. I never done this job before. I'm happy."
