Type 2 diabetes is one of the major threats to people above the age of sixty in the developing world. Today there are around 200 million people living with diabetes in the developing countries of Asia-Pacific and America-Latina. This disease is not curable and the medicine that helps, insulin is not affordable for the average elderly. However, the disease can be prevented in many cases by eating healthy and exercising. Even a person who has already developed diabetes can live without symptoms with an adequate diet. This is why I decided to concentrate on changing these people’s eating habits and making them do some exercise.

So my solution to this problem is a community garden with a service provided by an NGO as an aid. The community gardens would take place in every neighborhood of cities in the given country. The elderly could visit the garden and plant seeds provided by Green patch while socializing. Only vegetables and fruits that help to prevent/control diabetes would be available. This way, the elderly could save money on food while eating healthy.

A volunteer worker could help the visitors with planting, taking care of the seedlings and would also check their blood sugar and inform them about diabetes. Every participant could take away a recipe book with mostly traditional meals containing the food harvested at Green patch.

The plant containers in my design are an example for the Asia-Pacific area, but they can vary depending on the countries local materials. Here I have chosen the cheap and sustainable bamboo and nonwoven fabric which are both lightweight, therefor easy to transport.

The structure is easy to assemble, the bamboo joints could be already prepared by local suppliers. The modular containers have two heights that makes the garden accessible for the wheel chair users too.