STEM Garden Initiative

From Vision to Reality: Our First Screenhouse!

How Can one teach Science to hungry kids?
What if a single solution could solve both hunger and STEM gap?

In 2023, I was standing in my classroom as a Teach For Nigeria Fellow facing two problems at once:
1. Kids who were too hungry to focus on science.
2. Kids who loved science but had no real-world way to apply it.

A hungry child can’t learn. And a child who never touches STEM won’t believe it’s for them.

So we started small. With my students, we asked: “What challenge in our community can we solve with STEM?” The answer was food.

Our first field trip was to Soilless Farm Lab. We walked into a greenhouse and watched food grow without soil. Eyes lit up. Questions flew. For the first time, my students saw agriculture as tech, as innovation, as a career.

That day we made a promise: we wanted our students to build agency + mastery in AgricTech. Vertical farming with Gardenators. Precision farming. Drip irrigation. Hydroponics. Climate-smart systems that could feed communities.

We couldn’t afford a greenhouse yet. So we started with what we had.
Plastic bottles became drip irrigation.
Waste tyres, used sacks + plastic became growth medium.
We taught STEM by turning environmental waste into food.

Every lesson was proof: the future isn’t “tomorrow”. The future is here, and our kids can start now.

Today, that vision became real.
Thanks to Athari Group for believing in us and funding this milestone, our first screenhouse is complete.

It’s more than netting and posts. It’s a live classroom. 1000+ children from underserved communities will walk in here to learn STEM + Climate-Smart Agriculture by doing. They’ll see how innovation solves hunger. They’ll see themselves as scientists, engineers, and AgricTech leaders.

For Schools:The screenhouse is open for educational visits. Let your students learn where food + STEM meet.
📧 Email us: [email protected] to book a visit.

For Partners: This is Screenhouse #1. Our goal is 10 greenhouses that would serve 10,000 students in 2 years. We’re calling on donors + organizations to join Athari Group and help us replicate this model and shift a classroom need to a community solution.
This is just the beginning.

Picture 1: 2023 - Our first visit to Soilless Farm Lab. The vision was born.
Picture 2: 2026 - Our own screenhouse, built and open. The promise was kept.



STEM Garden Initiative Kids Who Farm World Connect Smart STEM Garden Educational Foundation Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

“This is my first time seeing a watering can.”
Not a rural myth. Not a story from decades ago.
A Nigerian student. Today.

We often talk about school infrastructure, curriculum reform, and teacher training.important conversations, no doubt. But there’s a quieter crisis we rarely address: the lived reality of the child in the classroom.

During one of our school visits, a student said, “This is my first time seeing a watering can.” Today, that same child now knows what a watering can is thanks to the World Connect Initiative.

This isn’t just about a tool.Its exposure, access,it’s about the gap between what we design on paper and what children actually experience.Because education is not only what is taught,it’s what is seen, touched, explored, and lived.This is the impact of intentional exposure.

If you would like to partner with us to create moments like this, send an email to [email protected] and cc [email protected]

This World Environment Day, we're reminded that a sustainable future begins right beneath our feet with the soil we nurture and the ideas we plant. This is why STEM Garden Initiative is doing more than creating awareness but raising a generation of problem solvers, who don't just see challenges but solutions. From nurturing school gardens to community projects and every step toward sustainability.

To partner with us, send an email to [email protected] and cc [email protected]

Give a child a seed, and you plant more than a garden .

Two weeks into Project 10:10:10 Phase 5, planting has begun across our partner schools. The excitement, curiosity, and eagerness of the children remind us why we do this.

A big thank you to World Connect for supporting this vision and to our committed volunteers for driving it.

We look forward to a bountiful harvest.

Want to partner with us, send an email to [email protected] and cc [email protected]

As we celebrate both Eid and Children’s Day, may peace, joy, and love be restored to our homes. May our hearts be filled with gratitude, our children flourish in wisdom and happiness, and our communities continue to grow in unity and hope. Wishing everyone a beautiful celebration.

We are set to begin our school garden project!

54 schools will receive 3 varieties of vegetable seeds, different garden tools, STEM Garden training Manual and tree seedlings to establish school gardens that will address hunger and bridge the STEM gap. These gardens will give thousands of underserved children access to fresh vegetables and integrated STEM education across Benue, Lagos and Ogun State. The exact number of students reached will be compiled after project completion. Over 100 teachers will also learn from this experience.

This is the largest rollout we’ve undertaken at one time. All thanks to World Connect for sponsoring this project and to our committed Volunteers for driving this Vision.

For partnership opportunities, email us at [email protected]