Gardening has the power to positively address issues of isolation and mental health. For people who have been forcibly displaced, the simple act of gardening produces beauty, restores dignity, creates community and offers opportunity. Since 2015 the Lemon Tree Trust has supported survivors of war to create home and community gardens, garden competitions and education projects and in April 2019 I visited one of the largest refugee camps in Iraq to see their work first hand. It changed my view of the world.

I met Aveen, who runs the Lemon Tree Trust community garden in Domiz camp and coordinates garden competitions in camps across the region. She is a mother like me, a gardener like me, a foodie like me and she loves to laugh, like me. We had more in common than we could ever have imagined, but she lives in a one room shelter having fled violence and war in her home city of Damascus to ensure her children reach adulthood. She is the strongest woman I have ever met. 

I'm raising money so the Lemon Tree Trust can give seeds and gardens to more people live Aveen. Life for refugees is not just about surviving, its about living. Making a garden is one of the most radical acts of defiance there is - putting down roots and believing in the future. 

Thank you for your support. xx