Abalimi Bezekhaya is spreading some winter cheer in the Western Cape by teaching people urban farming business skills and hoping to plant 100 trees for Mandela Day.
Cape Town, South Africa (02 July 2023) – When it rains in Cape Town, the gardening team at Abalimi Bezekhaya move indoors to do Agriplanner training, which teaches business skills and production planning.
Based in Nyanga and Khayelitsha, they are able to connect with the communities that need them most. The Abalimi Bezekhaya – Hope of the Nation, teaches people to grow home and community gardens. The organisation was founded in 1982 and has helped people bridge the gap by growing their own food. The organisation works alongside Ladles of Love’s “Feed the Soil” programme, turning food waste into compost which is used to produce food for other organisations.
“We provide training, resources and ongoing support to enable the urban poor to obtain employment or become self-employed as gardeners, gardening assistants and urban micro-farmers. By developing community and home gardens, it helps to create and maintain green spaces within the Cape Flats environment.”
Being outdoors during winter isn’t feasible in the Western Cape, so the organisation brings its participants indoors where they learn business skills and other administrative gardening skills.
These participants, once learned in the art of urban farming, are supported through the organisation. Their business opportunities grow just as well as their gardens! You can find out more about the support offered here.
For Mandela Day this year, the Abalimi Bezekhaya team hope to plant 100 food trees in the Kuyasa area of Khayelitsha. Food trees are yet another way of providing sustainable support to communities in need. Trees play a beneficial role in the environment and there are not many found in the urban setting.
Promoting trees, especially food trees, changes the asthetic of the environment as well as the ability to harvest and produce or sell food.
If you would like to volunteer to help plant trees, you can reach out to the team via the website here.
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