By Cornelius A. Fortune
ROYAL OAK – Greg Ruvolo doesn't mind getting his hands a little dirty, and that's not such a bad thing. The graphic designer will board a plane for Swaziland, Africa to take part in the Never Ending Garden program, an effort to help curtail the hunger problem there, by supplying a garden as a source of food and nourishment. The program will last 10 days.
A Royal Oak native, Ruvolo was introduced to the program by a friend who brought back photos of a picturesque land and wonderful stories. But it was more than the stories that attracted him; the positive nature of the program convinced him to raise the $3,500 necessary to get to Africa himself.
"It was so awesome to see and hear about, that I figured I wanted to try it for myself and see what kind of experience it is, because it was so moving to see his pictures. I wanted to see it for my myself and help out," Ruvolo said.
Ruvolo will have 75 others in his group, many of whom will be coming from all parts of the United States. "I'm the only one from the Midwest," he said.
While there, they will also visit an orphanage.
"Everybody's going to be bringing over stuff they (the orphanage) requested," he said. "They don't have shoes, so what people do is bring children's shoes. They have a shortage of shoes because there are more kids than shoes, but our main focus is on the gardening program."
The Never Ending Garden program is part of Heart for Africa, a faith-based humanitarian movement that mobilizes volunteers from various nations to achieve enduring solutions in Sub-Sahara Africa. Their focus is on hunger-related food security, orphans, vulnerable children, poverty alleviation, and AIDS prevention.
According to their website, over 100,000 gardens were planted in 2004. With numbers like that, the question becomes, why hasn't it worked in the past?
"There's so many people that's starving, that the program is thriving," said Ruvolo, "and they welcome people from America; they look forward to seeing everyone come. Some of the items we're collecting, the school has specifically asked for. Including colored pencils and crayons, and erasers – they can't get that stuff there, so it has to be brought to them. Something as simple as a Crayola crayon – they don't have anything like that."
Ruvolo is still a realist, though he has hopes that the project will be more successful than expected. "It's not going to solve it (the hunger problem) 100 percent, but it will help a lot because what they'll do is maintain it thereafter, and it will bide for their family or community," he said.
"I've been looking forward to this for a couple months now," he said. "We won't know what we'll be planting until we get there. It'll depend on what they have available to plant. (It'll be) something we can work with, and something they can maintain easily."
