Inside the Hagadera Refugee Camp located in Dadaab, eastern Kenya sits Mariam's kitchen garden. This camp of semi-permanent corrugated metal houses and canvas tents has been her home for the last 19 years. She came here at 34 years old due to political unrest in her home country of Somalia, and she has never known any other place since.
Over the years, she has worked hard to make it home. This garden was a big part of that, but it was also important for providing nutritious and diverse produce for her family of seven.
Supporting kitchen gardens in the Dadaab camp was a part of the European Union (EU)-funded Refugee Settlement Project implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in collaboration with other agencies of the United Nations.
While 2 000 refugee and host communities in Dadaab were supported to establish gardens through this project, Mariam's garden stands out in the camp. With seeds provided by FAO, she grows spinach, kale – commonly known as Sukuma Wiki –, black nightshade, cowpeas, amaranth and jute mallow. Both the quantity and quality of these crops far surpass others, which is why fellow community members come to learn from her. Some also ask for a share of her vegetables to feed their families.
"This has become the norm; women come here to see and admire my kitchen. I also share the vegetables with some of them, although most are just normally mesmerized as they had never thought that such green kitchen gardens could exist in Dadaab. They have now mustered up the courage to go set up their gardens," Mariam explains.
Given that Dadaab is predominantly dry, with sandy soils and scarce water resources, it is a formidable challenge. However, FAO provided training to produce crops within these conditions. Mariam, too, had to put in extra effort to maintain the green garden thriving today. Her green thumb is assisted by regular visits from FAO's extension service providers, who monitor her crops' progress.
"After the training, I was informed that the vegetables require loam soil [fertile soil]. Here it is mostly sandy, and I had to use a donkey-pulled cart to get the soil from far, an hour-long journey," Mariam noted. "But I knew it was going to yield well, and now here I am with the results you can see," she continued.
She adds that the passion for her children to have sufficient, diverse food was the main push behind her adoption of the kitchen garden. True to her ambitious dream, Mariam is now among the self-reliant refugees who no longer need food rations.
"These vegetables are better than what I used to get from the market. They are fresh, and they have significantly reduced the amount I have to spend on buying," emphasizes Mariam.
With the kitchen garden in place, she is saving about USD 45 a month. This money she uses to buy other essentials for her family.
Mariam explains that her biggest constraint is the lack of space. She dreams of expanding her kitchen garden so she can grow more, enough to feed her family and even sell the surplus in the market.
"I am sure my vegetables will be preferred to the ones that are brought from other areas, since they will get to the market when they are still very fresh," Mariam adds.
In addition to households receiving training on kitchen gardens, they are also taken through cooking demonstrations to build their practical skills and strengthen their ability to prepare diverse, nutritious meals using locally available foods.
"It is great to see women like Mariam and many others taking up this food production technology which is very practical but most importantly impactful in terms of their nutrition and incomes," says Elizabeth Kamau, the FAO project lead.
The project aims to reach another 2 000 households, also promoting the rearing of backyard chickens. Iron-deficiency and anemia among women of reproductive age and poor dietary diversity among children under five remain are major concerns in Dadaab. By growing vegetables and keeping poultry, families can access fresh and affordable foods that help address nutritional deficiencies.
This story is part of a series celebrating women farmers worldwide, from producers, fishers, and pastoralists to traders, agricultural scientists, and rural entrepreneurs. The International Year of the Woman Farmer 2026 recognises their essential contributions to food security, economic prosperity, and improved nutrition and livelihoods, despite heavier workloads, precarious working conditions, and unequal access to resources. It calls for collective action and investment to empower women, in all their diversity, and to build a fairer, more inclusive, and sustainable agrifood system for all.
The story and photos can be found here: https://www.fao.org/newsroom/story/a-refugee-camp-and-a-green-thumb/en
All feature stories can be accessed here: http://www.fao.org/news/stories-archive/en/