Mt. Fleuri secondary school gets own medicinal garden
The Mont Fleuri secondary school has inaugurated its shade house full of medicinal plants and vegetables -a donation by the Seychelles Centennial Women Lions Club.The President of the Seychelles Centennial Women Lions Club (SCWLC), Ruth Mohotti, officially opened the nursery with the school’s head teacher, Marc Arrisol.
The nursery, which started in January 2020 following a R10,000 donation by the SCWLC in 2019, has grown different types of medicinal plants such as Catharanthus Roseus (saponer), Lemongrass Cymbopogon Citratus (sitronnel), Plectranthus Amboinicus (gro bonm), Aloe Vera, Vetiver, among others. Among the vegetables being cultivated are lettuce, Chinese cabbage among a few other plants.Mr. Arrisol said that having a medicinal garden at the school is to promote the use of alternative medicine to cure some illnesses or diseases in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.He noted that the fact that we are faced with the pandemic which is certainly having and will continue to have a severe economic impact on the world and that scientists are still working day and night with no success to find a cure for the contagious virus, “the cure for the Covid-19 pandemic might be in these medicinal plants right here in front of you”.
He added that given the fact that education is not locked or caged between four walls, the medicinal garden will encourage students to get involved in environment education outside the classroom and in so doing they will learn to preserve and protect our environment.
He said that some of the medicinal plants in the nursery will be planted around the school compound while the vegetable plants will be transferred to a larger garden the school is about to create with the help of theMinistry of Fisheries and Agriculture.
Ms. Mohotti, a former student of the school, said the club’s hope in sponsoring and partnering with schools across the country for a school garden is that it is allowing the students to experience and to put into practice in an outdoor environment what they have learned in the classroom.
“That will be your visit before you go to see a doctor,” she added, asking them to be proud of their achievement.
Twelve-year-old S1 students Jean Jules and Sabine Henriette both spoke of the benefits of medicinal plants particularly for common ailments, while fellow students Fadell Sophola, Anaëlle Marie and Natasha Agathine recited poems they had written on their nursery.
The ceremony ended with the planting of more medicinal plants (Catharanthus Roseus) to further embellish the nursery.
Eleven schools have been assisted with funds to build their shade houses and Mont Fleuri secondary is the ninth school to have set up their nursery, since the SCWLC’s schools shade house project started in 2018.
