DENKA, vertical gardening for refugee camps

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The Aitex Challenge organized by Mango Corporate Social Responsibility

This project was carried out for the Aitex Challenge, which consisted of designing a product using a recently-developed organic-waste material. In this case, an olive-waste material was used, which lasts 6 months until it biodegrades.

Taking into account the poor mechanic properties of this material, as well as the rather bad smell and touch, it was decided to focus the function of our product on the cultivation. The target chose in this case was the refugees of Dadaab Camps in Kenia, as it is the world's largest refugee camp. The lack of food and medical care are indeed the biggest problems of these places, but the help from ONG's are by far not enough to save hunger.

DENKA, named after the Goddess of fertility, rain and sky at the horn of Africa, is a pop-up container based on vertical gardening which includes a water distribution system, while it optimizes the space used. It is especially designed to grow tubers such as sweet potatoes, as it contains a huge amount of calories and betacarothene, which helps preventing child blindness. Also, Kenia is the 12th world producer of sweet potatoes, so it is a local product adapted to the dry climate which needs a little amount of water to grow. Denka would not only generate alimentary benefits, but it would also allow trades, earn some cash, educate children and achieve social benefits for those who would work on this farming.

Aitex Challenge 2014 - Finalist