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Originally it was all jungle - a piece of land near the road linking Bandarwela and Welimada in the hills of Sri Lanka, overgrown and inaccessible. Today it is a two and a half acre plot of cultivated farmland, with the vegetable beds, including typical Asian plants like gotukola, kankun and paksoy, interspersed with rows of luxuriant spices, and everything flourishing on the terraced fields. There are also cows and pigs, poultry and even fish in the ponds. Terraced agriculture in Malpotha (Sri Lanka) - Photo: A. Gabriel An ecological project to encourage self-reliance Ten years ago the first youngsters from the SOS Children's Villages in Nuwara-Eliya and Piliyandala came to Malpotha, where the first SOS Children's Village agricultural training project on the island republic in the Indian Ocean was in the making. At weekends and holidays they would arrive and, with the help and guidance of experts, set about clearing the land of the scrub, laying out the fields, making sun-baked clay bricks and digging a well. For those who were later to come to Malpotha as apprentices, it was a foretaste of what daily life would be like for a four-year period of training. In the meantime the agricultural school has established itself as a successful synthesis of organic farming and youth training at a highly professional level. In the project planning phase for Malpotha, Cedric de Silva, National Director of SOS Children's Villages of Sri Lanka, argued the need to establish such training schemes with reference to the future of the young people of Sri Lanka, formerly Ceylon. With an area of some 65,000 km2, the country now has a total of about 19 million inhabitants, including more than 6 million under the age of eighteen. One would have to create an estimated 400 new jobs a day to provide employment for all the young jobseekers in the country. As in many other parts of the world, the question of helping the SOS youngsters find a job and earn an independent living has become one of the biggest challenges facing SOS Children's Villages in Sri Lanka. Providing training in the agricultural sector is one way of equipping the youngsters, especially in the rural areas, with the skills they need to achieve the goal of self-reliance. Fertile ground for profitable farming - Photo: A. Gabriel Putting life into practice Malpotha today can be considered a practical school of life for those youngsters who wish to live on their own soil in rural Sri Lanka and farm the land. "It is a hard life for the kids, one they have to get used to, one that takes commitment," says Cedric de Silva on the basis of his long years of experience. And the history of the SOS Farm has not been a continuous success story. There have also been setbacks, dead-ends and new starts. The SOS Farm takes a maximum of eight youngsters aged fifteen and above and provides them with both a home and training. The four-year apprenticeship programme is carefully structured so that, at the end of the course, the youngsters have the knowledge and skills needed to run a farm with regard to horticulture and crop growing, stock farming and breeding, processing their own produce, and also the various manual and mechanical skills that a farmer needs to work independently including car mechanics, welding, woodworking and electrical engineering. Unlike the practices of agribusiness, which are widespread in Sri Lanka, the apprentices in Malpotha are taught to cultivate vegetables and spices organically, to keep their animals in a near-natural environment, and to make thoughtful and sparing use of resources including water and the soil. Gradually the ecological approach to agriculture taught and practiced at Malpotha, without the use of chemical fertilizers, fungicides, pesticides and herbicides, is now leading to a growing awareness and interest within the local farming community. Another basic principle of the course is that the apprentices should learn from the beginning to work independently and without continuous supervision, that they should see the course as their own chosen path to empowerment. The youngsters are accordingly encouraged at all times to show initiative and make their own plans and decisions. Geese on their morning walk - Photo: A. Gabriel Decision to become a farmer At the end of the four years the youngsters, although they may not have learnt so much of an academic nature, have a wide range of practical skills and knowledge which will equip them for a good job or life on an organic farm like the one in Malpotha. Those who wish to set themselves up as independent farmers receive assistance and continuous support from SOS Children's Villages in the difficult initial phase of establishing a business. Siva, a graduate from Malpotha, says, "I learnt a lot at Malpotha, especially how to run a farm and earn a decent living. As I didn't spend so many years in school, I'd never have been able to learn all those things if I'd not been to Malpotha. I also worked in a big hotel with lots of tourists, but in Malpotha, on my own piece of land, that is where I am happy." Ananda's story is similar, and he adds, "I have my own plot of land and a house and the knowledge I need to live an independent life. If they need me, I'll be happy to help the other guys in Malpotha, too."