The Global Bio Gardens (GBG) project, a follow-up to the Migration in Dialogue initiative, was developed by the mentoring group of CGE to empower young migrants. Born out of the COVID-19 lockdown and the need for an inclusive international community, GBG started as a recreational pursuit for international students and migrant families in Erfurt. It evolved into a safe co-working space that fostered intercultural understanding and dialogue while addressing food security issues through sustainable gardening practices. The project, funded by the European Solidarity Corp program, aims to combat racism and right-extremism in the local community by providing a platform for collaborative work and integration for individuals with diverse backgrounds. By partnering with local universities, organizations, and agricultural experts, GBG hopes to create a strong and inclusive community that can contribute to solving societal problems like preventing extremism, promoting tolerance, and protecting the environment

From the participants themselves: 

“Many participants originally saw GBG as a recreational pursuit; however, many are now also concerned with food security issues and interested in a more sustainable way of farming. Some of them are now pursuing sustainable gardening practices in their home countries where their families also run farms. More importantly, however, the project transformed into a safe, co-working space in which a diverse group of individuals with international backgrounds could come together, exchange knowledge and experiences, and come to know one another and their cultures.

From the beginning of this project, it became clear that it could be much more in the city of Erfurt where international collaboration projects such as this one are lacking. By bringing together diverse perspectives, a multitude of experiences, and countless out-of-the-box ideas using the medium of a community garden, our community can challenge the issues of loneliness and “other-ness” that many migrants in Erfurt feel.

As a leadership team, we are a group of young, international activists, and we have many ties within the local Erfurt community. At the heart of our personal lives lies inter-community and intracultural dialogue, and, therefore, migrant and international resident integration is at the center of our purpose here in Erfurt. We believe that we can create something bigger than the right-extremism and hate movements within our local community and act as a small piece in the puzzle of other small organizations in Thuringia fighting against the same issues. We have already started the discussion, and with this grant, we would not only get to continue it but watch it grow and cultivate it to its true potential.

According to the Thueringen Monitor, which is a tool that measures racist sentiments in the state of Thuringia, Germany, there is still an alarming amount of right-extremism leanings in the region. This number has not significantly declined in the recent past. As a young group of international people living in Erfurt with colleagues coming from diverse backgrounds, we have personally experienced or have direct contacts who have had racist encounters in Erfurt. We hope to counter this and, inevitably, change this in our community with our community garden project by bringing together a diverse group of individuals for collaborative work and intercultural exchange.

By opening this space for dialogue, we will informally educate community members on how to become culturally sensitive, exchange dialogue with diverse groups of individuals, and help individuals with the processes of integration. Inevitably, we hope for our community members going out into the greater community and to further catalyze dialogue about tolerance and diversity. Additionally, with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been made aware to us that international residents or migrants who are new in Erfurt have had a difficult time establishing a community here and finding help from local individuals with the bureaucracy of staying in Germany as non-national individuals. Therefore, our project will help international individuals better integrate into society and feel comfortable in Erfurt by reducing the stresses of living in a new country. Having a project for collaboration and a community to surround a person makes the stresses of relocating less stressful, and local Erfurt citizens are a part of the project to help international individuals with bureaucratic processes to make the transition smoother. Therefore, we hope to create a network of support for international individuals in Erfurt, as this is not currently readily available for such individuals.

Through the practice of organic farming, we will contribute our part to reducing the impacts of climate change. It is an organic community garden project using Demeter-certified seeds, and no chemical fertilizers are used in the process of gardening. The project encourages participants of migrant backgrounds to learn how to grow and harvest their own produce, which overall reduces the high emissions of delivery services and the materials used for packaging groceries in the energy-intensive industry. The participants of the GBG project produce vegetables and herbs for their daily use. The produce is not enough for running kitchens entirely, but it has managed to add the aspect of sustainable living to participants’ lifestyles and, thereby, significantly reduces the carbon foot print/ecological footprint of participants and teaches individuals how to do this for a lifetime. This means long term impact..