IN THE four years or so since Barbara Ferguson began helping pygmy people displaced by the ongoing wars in the Democratic Republic of Congo, she has attracted quite a bit of support in St George and Sutherland Shire.
Churches, community groups and individuals have dug deep to help Dr Ferguson maintain a pygmy village of 170 residents, providing money for education, training, a preschool and community centre.
Her latest recruits are Beverly Hills Girls High School students.
Thanks to the girls, many of whom come from refugee and immigrant families, the pygmy village now has a small demonstration kitchen garden plot to show villagers how to grow their own food.
Dr Ferguson also thanked Rockdale Council and its No Dig Garden workshop held several months back.
Realising the need for the pygmies to grow their own food, Dr Ferguson was determined to set up small family plots in the village.
"It isn't safe to work in more fertile areas far from their village and so they have difficulty finding food for even one meal a day," she said.
She rightly thought she could learn a few things about growing vegetables in small spaces at the workshop.
Not long afterwards, Dr Ferguson was invited to speak at Beverly Hills Girls High School — after sending the girls a letter of encouragement for preparing birthing kits for women in the Congo (their story was featured in the Leader).
Dr Ferguson told the girls about the garden plots and how it would cost about $150 a family to replace lava deposits with good soil, prompting the girls to raise $150.
The garden project will expand as more money becomes available.
Dr Ferguson, a retired academic from Sans Souci with a PhD in social welfare — specialising in refugee settlement — went to Goma in 2009 to do voluntary work with the Heal Africa hospital.
Appalled by the plight of the pygmies, who were shunned and shunted from one bit of swampland to another, she raised enough money to buy land for a village.
Donations to St Mark's Anglican Church, South Hurstville.
