A garden that provides locals with fresh food and serves as an intercultural meeting place and school is always a special amenity in a large city. By making a donation, Drees & Sommer is supporting just such a project in Quito, the capital of Ecuador.
The Tinku project in the Ecuadorian capital Quito is a permaculture teaching center operating on public land granted to the Runakawsai Foundation. People can plant and harvest fruit and vegetables in the garden. The Tinku project also has the specific aim of children teaching from a kindergarten and a school how to grow their own fruit, vegetables and herbs using permaculture principles. Over the years it has trained many future permaculture designers this way. As part of the Transition Town Movement, Tinku endeavors to promote alternative city lifestyles, making it an important urban culture center in Quito.
However, the survival of the garden and the center has been jeopardized by the coronavirus pandemic. Even in the months before the crisis, funding of the project was becoming increasingly difficult as the result of price increases, strikes and social unrest.
For this reason, Drees & Sommer is supporting the intercultural project with a donation of 2,000 euros. We are also doing this based on the experience gained during the international production of our 50-year anniversary film, which indicated that cultural diversity and sustainability are fundamental elements of a livable future for our children and grandchildren. And the Tinku garden is an excellent example of how this can be achieved.
