A COMMUNITY farm which will help children and young people in the Isle of Man is getting ready to open its doors to the public.

Wallberry Farm on the Carnane Estate in Douglas will be run by The Children's Centre and will provide an opportunity for people to learn about caring for animals and growing crops.

At present the farm is home to three pigs, two cats and a dog. The farm will also welcome a donkey called Juan in the coming weeks. 

Over the last 12 months volunteers from local businesses have assisted staff from The Community Centre with helping to get the community farm up and running.

Volunteers - from companies including Abacus, Barclays Wealth, Deloitte, Lloyds, Pokerstars, Royal Skandia and Standard Bank – have spent 705 hours working on the site.

Mark Payne, head of experiential Learning at The Children's Centre, said: "We're extremely grateful to everyone who has supported the community farm in its first year - especially the volunteers who have worked on everything from putting up polytunnels to planting hedges.

"The volunteers have contributed a great deal to the development of the community farm but we've also had a lot of positive feedback and many of them have commented about how much they have gained from the experience in terms of personal development.

"We look forward to welcoming more volunteers this year and would be glad to hear from any businesses or community organisations which are able to help.

"There's still a lot of work to do but we are in the final stages of making the community farm ready for our open days on March 31 and April 1 when the wider Island community will have the chance to see what the community farm is all about."

For more information on The Children's Centre click here.

What do you think? Let us know your thoughts by leaving a comment below: