00:00I'm Dan Mostole from Mahwa Theatre. I'm the Green Engagement Lead. I run the Lincoln Green
00:08Gardening Group every Tuesday. We've got this vegetable bed, this garden, the micro allotment,
00:15and a new bed by the Lincoln Green Shopping Square. It has been quite a rewarding experience
00:24working with the people from diverse backgrounds, getting our hands dirty, planting flowers, herbs,
00:34vegetables that we share when the vegetables, once they are ready, we share as a group and
00:43seeing people being transformed, people having their confidence back, acquiring the gardening skills.
00:50Oh, it's quite rewarding. And again, promoting that community pohesion when it gets people from
00:58different nationalities, different backgrounds coming together, it's such an amazing thing.
01:03It really shows the community spirit and that togetherness.
01:08I became involved partly because I'm interested in gardening and it takes, it gets me out of the
01:15flat and partly because I like working with asylum seekers and I enjoy volunteering with asylum
01:21seekers and helping to welcome different people into Leeds. What local people were telling Mahwa was
01:28that they really needed a space, a space which they could use as a kind of public space or a
01:36space where
01:37they could go out in the, in the, in the times of COVID when everyone was, it was in their
01:41flats,
01:42in high rise flats. And, um, and so that they, that's, that's where the idea of, of having a garden
01:49from
01:49this creative theatre group came from. People, when they, they come, their, um, English language skills
01:57is quite low. Hence, they don't talk much, but when they find a friendly environment where everyone is,
02:03is, is working together, everyone's accepted as he is, they start opening up where people start, uh,
02:10trading words, maybe in Arabic, uh, in English. Then people start opening up, chatting, making new
02:18friends. I often spend a lot more time on the community side than actual, any actual gardening.
02:24So, uh, uh, I'm not one of the harder workers. Uh, so there's some people who really get into the
02:30digging very hard and things like that. And I don't really do that as much. So we've got a quieter
02:35area where people do the seeds, sow seeds nearby and things like that. So there's, there's things
02:40that people of all different, um, abilities can, can do. Some have noted that their mental health
02:47conditions have improved by participating in gardening activity, also spending time in nature. So I think
02:56it's having a very positive, uh, effect to the community.
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