"Turbana launches "International sister school garden exchange"

The opportunity to directly interact with a distant culture is something few children are able to experience and most can only dream of. Today, Turbana Corporation is making that dream a reality by announcing its partnership with its social foundation, Fundauniban, and the New Jersey Agricultural Society’s “Learning Through Gardening” program to launch its first annual “International Sister School Garden Exchange”. The Garden Exchange is aimed at developing cultural understanding among our global youth by getting kids from different countries excited to interact with one another.

Sister schools are chosen with the criteria that they both have gardening and language programs, which are active and ongoing. For selected schools, the gardening programs must teach kids to eat smart and care for the environment. The International Sister School Garden Exchange then takes the learning a step further by introducing kids to different cultures while focusing them on a gardening project that is hands-on, fun and educational. It also gets them excited to share their experiences with each other. The first “International Sister School Garden Exchange” has partnered students at Westfield, New Jersey’s Tamaques Elementary School with students at Uraba, Colombia’s Churido Pueblo School, whose gardening program is supported by Fundauniban.

Since February of this year, the International Sister School Garden Exchange has given a total of 128 fifth grade students in the US and Colombia the chance to interact and further learn about each other’s cultures. The Garden Exchange has made it possible for these students to connect and share their experiences, bringing the two communities together. For Turbana, the Garden Exchange aligns perfectly with its ongoing social movement, Growing Smiles, Sharing Goodness (GSSG), which is all about encouraging smart eating habits, caring for the environment, and fostering community.

The program, which runs until June 2014, is intended to expand the students’ worldview by having them tend to a garden and share their experiences with their peers in another country. Fun activities build excitement and facilitate communication in both Spanish and English between the children of the two schools. One such activity is a card exchange, where students write to their sister school in the language they’re learning. They share what is growing in their garden, what they have discovered and anything else they find interesting. To further enrich their experience, the kids make and exchange videos of what they have learned during the cultivation of their respective gardens. Additionally, Skype sessions allow the kids to interact in real time, bridging the distance gap, and unifying their worlds. These activities always tie back to the partnership’s goal: exciting children about new cultures, gardening and healthy food choices.

“Turbana and Fundauniban maintain a continued focus on supporting educational and environmental projects because we know this is the best way to improve the quality of life for the people in our communities. Through the International Sister School Gardening Exchange, students from both schools are going to be able to learn from each other, share experiences and get to know a completely new culture,” said Marion Tabard, Turbana’s Marketing Director.

Through the Garden Exchange, Turbana continues its “Growing Smiles, Sharing Goodness” movement within communities by creating a connection between children in the U.S. and Colombia. Together, Turbana and the New Jersey Agricultural Society will continue to break through geographical and cultural barriers to bring communities closer in the future.

For more information:
Krystal Kinney
THR33FOLD
Tel: +1 (305) 527-2191
Email: Krystal@thr33fold.com