|
A healthy diet is being made possible for some of Joburg's most
vulnerable residents, who receive organic vegetables and herbs from the Siyakhana Food Garden.
ON the outskirts of the high-rise flatlands of the inner city is a
remarkable place, a lush green food garden.
At work in the garden
This is the Siyakhana Food Garden
in Bezuidenhout Park,
De Wetshof, in the east of Joburg, a project run by the health promotion unit of
the University of the Witwatersrand under the
care of Professor Michael Rudolf.
Little plots are carefully laid out, and some of the vegetables are
beginning to ripen, with the spinach, lettuce and cabbage ready for harvest.
It's still early in the season for the other crops, which include tomatoes and
squash.
There are a few women tending to the crops, removing dead leaves and
weeds. One of them, Nomathemba Ncusana, says: "There is so much work that could
still be done. I wish that the current space could be extended to allow us to
substantially increase our produce and have sufficient storage facilities for
our harvest."
Among others, this small garden, a hectare in total, feeds over 400
inner city children. Of the 11 NGOs it supports, 10 are preprimary schools and
one is an orphanage. A visit to one of them, Little Eagles Preprimary, is a joy
- the school is filled with beaming faces, with little bodies full of energy
running and playing. Their health is partially thanks to Siyakhana Food
Garden's handpicked,
organically grown vegetables that are delivered once a week.
Siyakhana began in 2005, set up by the university unit with the help of
a number of non-governmental organisations, to find a way of helping the city's
most vulnerable residents. The land was provisionally donated by the City of Johannesburg.
In a speech delivered last year at the launch of the second phase of the project, Rudolph explained that a large part of the population was "vulnerable to
food insecurity, with women and children, the elderly and people living with
HIV/Aids the most vulnerable".
Providing healthy food
"Poverty is the leading cause of food insecurity and food insecurity is
a major contributor to the persistence of poverty," he said.
Perma-culture
Siyakhana is a pilot project; it is a model perma-culture food garden
that also empowers the local community, particularly women, through training,
employment and income-generation opportunities. Perma-culture, derived from
permanent agriculture, is a way of farming that is ecologically sound and
sustainable in the long term.
Hundreds of people living in the inner city are unemployed, living
below the breadline and going to bed hungry, Rudolph pointed out. The garden
offers a way of giving the most vulnerable people healthy food.
At present, some 11 non-governmental organisations benefit from the
vegetables and herbs grown in the garden. These groups deal with home-based
care for the elderly and infirm, and early childhood development projects.
Mandla Tshabalala, a perma-culturist who runs the garden on a day-to-day
basis, cares for all living and non-living things. In his farming methods, he
applies principles that do not harm, but rehabilitate the Earth, promote active
conservation and the frugal use of resources.
He says that the project focuses on organic gardening methods, relying
on crop rotation, green manure, compost and biological pest control. Farming in
this way, an under-used, dry piece of land has been turned into a food basket
in just four years.
In addition, because no synthetic pesticides, plant growth regulators,
livestock feed additives or genetically modified organisms are used, no
pollution is caused, Tshabalala says.
Rudolph said that organic farming also yields food high in nutritional
content.
Teaching skills
But Siyakhana is not just a vegetable garden; people are taught about
using herbs, organic gardening and even healthy cooking methods. Nine women are
employed full-time on the project, most having started as volunteers.
Tshabalala too started out as a volunteer. He then went to Germany where
he studied to be an eco-village designer - a person who uses perma-culture
principles to start up sustainable eco-sensitive communities - skills he now
passes on to the people with whom he works.
This adds an entrepreneurial component to the project, which also runs
a small business helping people to start up and maintain organic gardens.
Johannesburg has plans to roll out
similar projects across the city, Tshabalala points out, having selected the Siyakhana Food Garden
as a pilot to copy. Discussions are also under way with the Mpumalanga provincial authorities to assist
with the rollout of similar projects in the neighbouring province.
Related stories:
|
