Virtual Village

Kijiji is the KiSwahili word for village.  Buy Africa is a virtual village of African places, people and products.  The idea of food is an area that has not been touched on this blog.  Kijiji Grows represents the East Bay as an aquaponics farming company, teaching Oakland youth about Science and Agriculture.  Their idea is so symbiotically amazing that I had to feature it here.

From their site:

Kijiji Grows

Kijiji is swahili for village.

It takes a village to grow individuals.

It takes individuals to make a village grow.

Kijiji represents that we are all about community – the people.

"The company's co-owners, Keba Konte and Eric Mandu, say they hope their presence will contribute to the community. "We're not selling any technology, we're absolutely not selling produce," said Konte, who's also the owner of Guerilla Cafe in Berkeley. "As a company, what was in it for us was that we would be able to demonstrate what this technology does." The East Bay company sells aquaponics gardening systems, in which a pipe cycles water between a fish tank and a garden box, allowing the plants to be fertilized by the fish waste and the roots of the plants to filter fresh water back to the fish."

-East Bay Express 04/09

So you see, this technology has the means to narrow the education gap and increase food security in "food deserts" in inner cities.  There are efforts to bring the technology to Mandu's native Kenya as well.  Here is how it works.


Kijiji Grows from Jill Replogle on Vimeo.

What a great idea! I definitely want to use this or at least try the food they can produce. Find them on Facebook & Twitter for more information!