Coming from Lithuania, a country known for its greenery, I have always had a special passion for nature. As a child I would often help my family in our summer home garden, or accompany them in forest foraging. When I moved to London 4 years ago, the disconnect between people and wildlife seemed acute. I felt strongly about human/nature bonds and how they enrich our lives, and felt determined to embrace this in London. Since then I have been thoroughly committed to finding ways to connect with nature by immersing myself in community based projects that share my hopes and views; an urban life amongst nature is not only possible, it is necessary. Communities thrive on knowledge-sharing, mutual support and a joint mission to care, in this case, for our land and its residents. I started my horticulture journey during the national lockdown by volunteering at my then local community mutual aid and gardening group, The Field New Cross. I quickly fell in love with their passion for community building via learning from each other, inspiring and nourishing eachother with art, protest and home grown vegetables! I took on the responsibility of helping organize and run volunteer food parcel deliveries during the pandemic, administering delivery schedules, enforcing COVID-19 regulations during pick-up and delivery as well as organizing contents of food parcels to ensure a nutritionally dense and fulfilling package. I was also working in the food garden and illustrating for the monthly newsletter. After moving to Peckham, I was determined to put my energy into something similar in the local community, so I joined OK Grow, a Southwark Council funded project geared towards the support of the residents of Aylesbury Estate’s Penbroke House. I worked with the head grower as we planted, grew and distributed food in mutual aid groups and charities such as Peckham Pantry. Our aim was to encourage community engagement and empowerment; we worked with council house residents to get involved in food growing, one
on one teaching of planting and plant care, which attracted many children who were otherwise playing in the outside areas of the estate. Their curiosity and determination to learn and help inspired me; I understood then that I want to work with children in this capacity as they are the ones to carry the wisdom of the earth into the future. At this time I also volunteered at Glengall Wharf Community Garden, where I took care of the rescue chicken coop and partook in their weekly gardening and DIY sessions.
Despite not holding any official horticulture qualifications yet, I believe I would make a great fit for the gardening educator role as my extensive volunteering in mutual aid & gardening communities has given me an array of practical skills such as food growing, community action organization & project management and having worked at managerial hospitality roles for many years I have acquired leadership and team building skills that would undoubtedly aid in working with groups of children looking to learn from and get inspired to work outdoors. Through my bachelors degree I have excelled in research/analysis and project completion, as well as developing productive time management and work/life balance skills which will enable me to put together a curriculum on whatever scale is needed and execute it creatively with mindfulness to each specific group.












