by Father Mayank Parmar for BISMumbai

Don Bosco Kapadvanj is an approximately 10 acre-campus on the outskirts of Kapadvanj town 03 km away from the main bus station and about 100 yards from the railway station towards Garod village. This campus is turned into a model farm including cattle, poultry, ducks, goats, rabbits, and vermicompost. This Project Go Green is initiated at the Don Bosco Kapadvanj Campus to educate and showcase as a model farm utilizing completely organic and chemical-free agents for plant growing and animal rearing.

Brother Jerome Mendonca, aged 75 is the coordinator of Project Go Green as Farm Manager of the Campus . With his natural talent and gifted 'green hands', Brother Mendonca is changing the look of the campus, slowly but surely. Taking charge since the day of his arrival on campus, he has set about studying the possibilities of using every available portion of the land to its maximum. Already more than 200 plants have been planted in a week's time, and field plots are being readied for various types of fruit orchards and vegetable gardens.

According to Brother Mendonca, "no land should be kept vacant and it must be made use of by growing some plants or be other means of cultivation." Pravin Rathod the senior-most farmhand in DBKapadvanj says, "Brother has already planned and planted all the monsoon creepers with bamboo supports. It looks like some wedding party is going to happen. In my last 25 years, this year i can feel the difference in the manner of going about. This is a systematic way of plantation. We will surely grow bumper crop this year, especially in the vegetable garden." DBKapadvanj administrator, Father Ashwin Macwan says, "looking at Brother's enthusiasm at this age, I could not but go out of my way to ensure that he gets all the help possible not only from the point of working staff but also purchasing the plants."

With the unassuming and gifted Brother Mendonca, DBKapadvanj is geared to showcase the various possibilities of cultivating and caring for the earth, as proposed by Pope Francis and more especially in this Laudato Si' year, the campus is looking to be a model farmland with project Go Green.