Aquaponics is Up and Running!

Maggie     5 November 2013

Normally when you think of growing things in a tropical environment, images of lush trees dripping with exotic and delicious fruits come to mind.  Who wouldn't love to have mango's each day or vegetables fresh each day!  

But what happens during the "wet", the rainy season, when typhoons and rains can completely obliterate an entire crop.  These are the challenges that face the ag workers at RSM as they try to provide produce for the hungry mouths at the orphanage.

A few years ago a dream was growing in the hearts and minds of a group of school students in Perth, Western Australia.  They wanted to help with a need in a developing country, and one of the students happened to have a little sister from Rehoboth.  It was an instant marriage of desire and need!  After much research and discussion, as well as eliciting the assistance of the Rotary Club of South Perth Burwood, the students settled on the idea of providing an aquaponics system for the home.  This secure environment would be able to provide produce and protien in the form of fish.

Every dream will have its challenges and hiccups.  Getting things through customs, finding local expertise to help with the installation.  But it was with great joy that the project was able to be completed in December of 2013.  With a secure foundation and power, the grow beds and fish tanks were installed.  And the first lettuce is already sprouting!

Over the next few months we will continue to bed in the process and system, so that we can soon add fish, which will add rich nutrients to the water that the plants grow in.  It is an exciting time, and the opportunities are endless.  A new frontier in sustainability at RSM has begun, and it was all through the generous hearts and spirits of some wonderful people who wanted to help in a very tangible way.  We are blessed!