This morning, during a two-hour break in the Kathmandu curfew, I was able to pay my first visit to the Lily’s Leaves sapling nursery. This is a Big Give funded initiative that launched in July this year, giving training and employment to vulnerable young women who are deaf. The aim is to provide saplings, to order, for our urban forest plantation work and an income to the Lily’s Leaves social enterprise through sales of saplings to members of the public and other organisations involved in reforestation projects.

These young women are really pleased to live on-site as this is much cheaper than renting rooms in town, they have their own secure space and effectively a very large back garden! Under the watchful eye of Tara, a staff member of Lily’s Leaves who is currently studying for a B.Ed degree, they learn how to germinate seeds under controlled conditions and nurture the saplings until they can be planted out.

Prior to the launch of this project, we were only able to use saplings that were available either donated free of charge by the Department of Forestry (timber-producing species) or by purchase from private nurseries (flowering plants, suitable for gardens). Now, we can continue to use free timber species alongside other native species that we grow ourselves, assuring us of the best mix for biodiversity. Lily’s team has also been trying to cultivate rare and endangered species and, at the time of writing, two such species are growing very well.

Altogether, the nursery is currently providing a (temporary) home to over 1,000 saplings from 20 species. That’s not bad after just a couple of months! Some of these saplings will be relocated to Lily’s Leaves plantations next week, curfews permitting.