The work of Atsuko Otsuka - author, writer and photographer

The Dayton Agreement in 1995 ended the war, but created two entities within Bosnia and Herzegovina: the Muslim-Croat Federation, and the Serbian Republic (Republika Srpska). As a result, Bosnia’s former multi-ethnic community disappeared, and ethnic tensions still remain to this day. In 2000, in an effort to provide a safe area where people from Bosnia’s different ethnic groups could meet and work together, the American Friends Service Committee established its first community garden in Sarajevo. The project initially started with one garden. Today it has expanded to 15 gardens spread throughout the country.

Main purposes of the community gardens are:
*To create a safe environment for the positive interaction between Bosnia’s different ethnic groups.
*To help support low-income families by giving them a place to grow their own vegetables.
*To provide work therapy for people who were physically and mentally traumatized by the war.
*To educate the participants about environmentally friendly ways of food production.
*To give assistance to the participating refugees and displaced people.

Each participating family member is assigned a plot of about 50 square meters in which to grow his or her own vegetables. Families who wish to participate must submit a form containing information such as their family income, ethnicity, and number of children. They are also asked if the members of their family are displaced, or if any family member is employed. The first criterion for the selection of the participants is their financial situation, though also high on the list is their ethnicity. Since the gardens are intended to be communal spaces for the interaction of Bosnia’s different ethnic groups, the ethnic structure of the gardens is carefully balanced. As well as the participants, staff members are also multi-ethnic. Davorin, the garden director, is Croat. Belma, an agronomist, is Bosniak; and Vanja, another agronomist, is Serb.

Currently, about 2,000 people participate in the project. However many more remain on the waiting list. More gardens throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina are needed, and would greatly contribute to the peacemaking process between the region’s different ethnic groups. The community garden project connects people who might otherwise never get the opportunity to meet. It gives them hope for the healing and rebuilding of their communities, and it affords them the opportunity to become friends as individuals, without the fear of being labeled by their ethnicity.

Here in Japan, whenever teenagers commit particularly disturbing crimes, people talk about the ‘darkness’ in their mind. But what is this darkness in their mind? Where does it originate? And how does it drive these children to hurt others? One possible answer is that they may lack a real sense of the value of life. Also, they may not know how to express their anger through any other way but violence. If these children knew how to nurture the lives of others, or how to express their dark feelings without hurting others, then things might have been different.
Many children who come to Green Chimneys arrive scarred by mistreatment such as abuse or neglect. Because they often never received adequate love and care at home they found it difficult to form warm relationships with others. They would often express their negative feelings through violent behavior. Consequently, these children are at risk of eventually hurting either themselves or others. Also, it is known that children who are abused by their parents tend to abuse their own children when they grow to be parents themselves. Green Chimneys strives to teach these children to both love and to receive love through the action of caring for animals.

Fourteen-year-old Keyla, who grew up without getting much attention from her parents, says, “I come to the farm when I’m sad because the animals give me comfort.” Her favorite animals are the goats. Unlike many other animals, which often run away, goats will come close to you and pull your shirt or shoelaces, and Keyla enjoys that attention. “When I’m surrounded by goats,” She says, “I feel accepted and loved. ”

One day at Green Chimneys a boy who used to hit his mother tried to pick up a duckling. It was warm and cute and soft, and he really wanted to hold it. But when he saw the duckling’s mother running around anxiously, he let the duckling go. “His mom is worried about her baby,” He said. ” I shouldn’t do this.”

Animals can draw out the gentlest part of a child’s heart, even if that child is labeled with behavioral or emotional problems. The nurturing instinct is a treasure that every child possesses inside themselves.

In 2000, as Tacoma rapidly developed, the owner of one of the vacant lots that Guadalupe Gardens had developed decided to sell, so the people of Guadalupe Gardens were forced to rescue the flowers in the garden as quickly as possible before the land was cleared and converted into a parking lot. That experience convinced them to create a non-profit organization called the Land Trust. The idea was that the Land Trust would raise the funds necessary to buy the land where the gardens had been planted, so that they could be permanently conserved.

Before they could accomplish this though, La Grande, the largest of all of the Guadalupe Gardens, was put up for sale. But the price that the owner was asking was too high for the Land Trust to raise alone. So they teamed up with another non-profit organization that provided housing for low-income people, and together they were able to obtain funding from the city of Tacoma, on the agreement that a portion of the La Grande land would be converted to low-rent apartments.

Guadalupe Gardens not only revived its community, but also provided healing for many of the people who came to work there. Danny, 41, was living in the corner of one of the gardens when a staff member asked him if he would like to help gardening. Danny had been born and raised in Texas, and came to Washington as seasonal farm worker. But when he started drinking he could no longer hold a job. Because he never spoke when he first came to work at Guadalupe Gardens, people assumed that he wasn’t able. But the truth was that he simply didn’t want to talk. As he started growing vegetables, however, he began talking little by little. He proved himself to be a hard working gardener, and came to love his gardens. Now he has his own “Danny’s Garden.” “I love everything about gardening”, he says. “I’ve found my place here.”

Heidi, 46, also found her place at the Guadalupe Gardens. Although she grew up in a wealthy family and received an excellent education, she still lived a very difficult life. She became addicted to drugs, and shuffled in and out of rehabilitation facilities. But she found her love for gardening when she worked at an organic gardening program for the San Francisco County Jail (see Books: A Garden That Grows People). “Seeing organic vegetables growing beautifully without using chemicals was like seeing myself getting freed from drugs,” she says. She learned of Guadalupe Gardens after she moved to Tacoma. She’s now one of the main caretakers of the gardens.

What happened at the Guadalupe Gardens is happening at many community gardens in Japanese cities. Often when the owner of a garden dies, his family is forced to sell the land because they cannot afford to pay the inheritance tax. Usually, the land ends up in the hands of developers who turn it into housing. Recently, one of my own favorite gardens in my neighborhood in Nerima-ku, Tokyo was sold to a developer and became a high-rise apartment.
Green spaces like community gardens in cities would disappear quickly in the wave of development unless we work to protect them. We first need to realize the important roles that the gardens can play in the communities, as they embrace all kinds of people, and connect them to each other and to the cycle of nature.
In this column, I would like to continue writing about this subject as much as I can.