H-Garden or Garden of the Homeless is a Depaul Croatia project, funded by the European Union (European Social Fund), aimed at increasing employment opportunities and reducing the risk of social exclusion and poverty by strengthening expertise, strengthening soft and transversal skills by implementing community advocacy programs and strengthening the capacity of professionals working with the unemployed to improve the quality of work with marginalised groups.
Through the training program, professional knowledge is acquired related to the performance of tasks in the preparation of land for planting and cultivation of crops in agriculture, vegetable growing, fruit growing, cultivation of aromatic plants and beekeeping. Participants – users acquire knowledge about tillage, planting and care of crops, harvesting, transport and storage of fruits and basic processing of their own products, acquire knowledge about sustainable management and organic production, machinery and equipment for plant processing and production of bee products.
The works in H-Garden in December 2020 continued the infrastructural implementation of project ideas conceived during the previous months; erecting a garden house – tool shed and making a porch – canopy.
On December 12, as part of the Advent weekends that were part of the fundraising campaign of Depaul Croatia called Homeless for One Night, a public presentation of the project was held as well as previous works in our garden with demonstration workshops of sowing Christmas wheat and covering garden beds with straw. a protective thermal layer was provided for sown and already sprouted vegetables. This is the first of a series of actions that seek to raise public awareness of the burning issue of homelessness at the micro level of the local community through direct practice of concrete work that seeks to ensure the inclusion of the homeless in the community.
