Community gardener and resident of Swakopmund's DRC informal settlement, Reinhard Gariseb, is urging the government to support backyard garden initiatives. 

Gariseb said training unemployed and interested young people in gardening can help with food security and address joblessness. 

Gariseb started his gardening project during the COVID-19 pandemic to equip young people with practical skills on how to grow food and support themselves.

He stresses that the high number of unemployed youth in DRC is a major challenge, and teaching youth how to grow and maintain their own gardens can make a real difference.

"If we can have a garden almost at each and every house, we can hire other youth, especially the waste and recyclable waste collectors. These young men are picking up the scrap metals and selling them at the scrapyards. We can hire them and upscale them, give them new skills, and give them training on how to do gardening, whereby they are the ones going around monitoring the gardens." 

Before a fire destroyed Gariseb's first garden project in 2020, it fed more than 160 households. 

He has since rebuilt it, but limited funds remain a challenge.