Not every classroom has to be full of desks, books and blackboards. In Dagoretti, Kenya, a lucky group of students get to spend some of their school day learning a very important skill: urban farming.
Thanks to local resident Martin, they get to see how vegetables grow in the middle of one of Nairobi's most crowded informal settlements. From cone gardens to a hydroponic system, these techniques are changing lives.
Nobody asked Martin to become this educator. But thanks to your support throughout Christian Aid Week 2026, he's been empowered to share his knowledge.
It's not too late to donate to Christian Aid Week 2026 and change lives for the better.
Meet Martin
Martin, 60, joined the Imarisha Kilimo project in Dagoretti, in December 2023. He's got four grown children of his own, and among the farming groups in Dagoretti, he's become something of a quiet expert - the person others turn to when they want to know how to get more out of a small patch of ground.
Joining the project brought Martin a renewed purpose following the tragic death of his wife.
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How your funding helped Martin learn new skills
Since joining the project, run by our partner Beacon of Hope, Martin has trained in a wide range of growing methods. He's developed an impressive understanding of cone gardens, trough gardens, sack gardens and hydroponics, the last of these with support from Kenya's Ministry of Agriculture.
Since I joined the training, the sensitisation forums I’ve engaged in have really, really helped me. We have many types of gardening. I have been shown and even trained on the different techniques of farming.
Martin is also one of the few participants with enough space to keep animals, which he's cleverly turned into a closed loop: pigs and rabbits provide income, their manure goes back into the soil as organic fertiliser. Nothing, not even the leftover kale stems and weeds go to waste. It becomes animal feed instead.
Alongside the vegetables, he grows herbs such as rosemary, mint and lemongrass, all expanding well beyond what he set out to do when he first picked up a hoe.
Learn how Christian Aid's approach is helping to tackle food security in Kenya.
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The ripple effect that no one planned for
Word of Martin's plot reached the school near his home and now many children come to see it. It provides a living demonstration garden, informally teaching the same techniques Martin learned through the project. It's the same model Imarisha Kilimo uses to train adult farmers, recreated by Martin for a completely different audience.
This is the part of the story that matters most for Christian Aid Week. The original gift here wasn't given to teach schoolchildren how to farm, it was given to help one widower rebuild a livelihood after loss. But skills are rarely contained when generous people like Martin want to see future generations succeed.
Your support helps more than one man
Passing on what you know helps the whole community grow. And Martin's small plot started by feeding his family. Now it's shaping how a generation of children in Dagoretti understand where food comes from.
Martin may be the inspiration behind this story, but none of this would be possible without your support. Christian Aid Week may have been just seven days but to the communities and families it reaches, it's so much more.
It's not too late to show your support
You can't always predict where a gift like this will end up doing the most good. Support Martin during a hard year and you may not know you're also helping a classroom full of children learn to grow.
If you gave during Christian Aid Week, thank you! This is one of the places it landed. And if you haven't yet or you're wondering what else you could do, there's still time to give or simply to share Martin's story. Donate today, because you never quite know whose life it will change.
