Sicily: A community garden in Librino, Catania

Close up of gardens in 2013. Click on image for larger file.

There are about 40 gardens presently

By Roberto
Volunteer with the project
Nov 30, 2016

We started our work about 20 years ago as a non profit association working with the children in a suburban district of Catania (Sicily), Librino, where there was a high crime rate.

As volunteers we focused on after-school activities. After ten years, someone had the idea to start a rugby team to help children. We chose rugby, because it is a contact sport and can help children to unload their daily stress because they see so much brutality in their district. It also teaches them many positive attitudes such as respect for rules, and respect for rivals, etc.

In Librino we started to use an abandoned sport centre, which had been erected with public money but never been opened. The name of this centre is San Teodoro. With much effort, both economic and physical, and with the help of many volunteers, we restored this place, started playing sport with the children and helpied them with the classwork.

Because the place was so large and had wide open spaces, we thought that we should become involved not only with the children but also with their parents and grandparents. But how to do this? We thought that a great idea could be to create a community garden.

And so the community garden was born five years ago with the help of many associations and the people of Librino. Today all around the that Rugby field are family gardens full of vegetables. There are about 40 gardens presently.

See an article about the garden. (In Italian)

See an aerial shot of the garden.

See more about the rugby team. (In Italian)