New Roots: From Uprooted to Planting Seeds of Renewal in Miami

Beneficiaries pose for a photo with IRC staff and Home Depot representatives

Each year the IRC in Miami helps hundreds of uprooted men, women and children find safety and freedom in surrounding communities. Taking it a step further, IRC in Miami is now helping these refugees plant new and lasting roots by beginning the first phase of the New Roots project in Miami.  Through New Roots, the IRC in Miami will be helping refugees become self-sufficient and contribute to their new home through community gardening, nutrition education and small business farming.

On Monday, January 14th, the Miami office held their New Roots project launch, inviting families interested in participating and learning more. The gracious people at the Home Depot located in Hialeah Gardens donated 25 gardening kits to distribute to refugee families attending Monday afternoon.  Gathered together in the IRC  conference room, the families received potted soil and picked out the vegetable seeds they would like to grow. The Home Depot then gave an extensive training on how to care for their new vegetable seeds from home. The refugee families were envisioned to care for their plants in the hopes of having them relocated into the IRC in Miami community garden sometime soon!