“Give a person a food parcel and you feed them for a week. Teach them to grow their own food and you feed them for life”
Covid-19 has had a harsh impact on communities with the cost of basic food on a rise , high unemployment rate and lack of possibilities.
The Anglican Church of St Columba in Gugulethu opened their doors for a home food gardening course to be run by the Green Anglicans.
The course ran over six-week period and church and community members learned skills on how to prepare seed boxes, trench beds, make compost, planting, pest control, crop rotation , biodiversity , windbreaking , liquid fertilizer , succession planting and propagation . Ms Gugu Mazibuko, a member at Christ Church Constantia, who led the training said “not only was the training about learning gardening techniques but also the value of soil and it was now up to the graduates to use that which they have gained to better themselves and their loved ones.”
On the 23rd of June, a wonderful graduation ceremony was held for the 12 gardening course graduates. Rev Mzamane thanked the Green Anglican for bring hope to the community of Gugulethu and encouraged the graduates not to sit at home with their skills but feed their families and feed the nation by selling fresh produced to locals, and invited them to sell outside church after service on a Sunday.
We would like to thank Ms Wendy Mhlaba and Mrs Nombeko Leputhing for having mobilised community members to attend the course and Ms Gugu Mazibuko for having shared her skill with great compassion with the community of Gugulethu.
We are grateful to Rotary Club for their supporting the training course and to the Dutch Reformed Church for sponsoring the graduation gifts of gardening starter packs
Bino Makhalanyane
Photo credit Wendy Mhlaba