For 30 pensioners, feeding their families just got easier thanks to a SANParks initiative that gifted them food gardening and angling equipment as well as the relevant licences to fish.
Garden Route, South Africa (11 April 2022) – Communities surrounding the various South African National Parks (SANParks) are being supported through initiatives that help not only boost their lives but add back to the local economy as well.
Thirty women, who are pensioners, from the Wilderness Heights, Klienkrantz, Smutsville and Rheenendal communities in the vicinity of the Wilderness Section of the Garden Route National Park have been the recipients of food gardening and angling equipment. This has been done to boost food security within their homes.
Not only have they been supported with the relevant angling equipment, but they are also now the holders of the relevant fishing permits to allow them to fish without worry. This initiative forms part of the SANParks Community Social Legacy Programme aimed at addressing a broad spectrum of community social needs.
“We are proud to be handing-over this much needed equipment as part of our Food Security and Angler Support Programmes, both which will make a difference in the lives of the people living near to the Wilderness Section of the Garden Route National Park.” – Dumisani Dlamini, SANParks Acting CEO
He said, SANParks has adopted these programmes to safeguard against poverty by encouraging food gardens at home and also providing skills for sustainable fishing while recognising indigenous knowledge in the area of food security and sustainable angling.
Dlamini said in collaboration with the Garden Route Biosphere Reserve, a total of 30 pensioners’ from the Smutsville community would benefit from the angling project, where their indigenous knowledge will be utilised for future generations.
“The ideology behind the project is to ensure that there is an intergenerational skills transfer with youth also learning from the pensioners, while also addressing the issue of illegal fishing. The Programme also aims to assist pensioners with fishing permits as they depend on marine resources as food.
The Community Social Legacy Projects are funded from the 1% tourism income on all accommodation bookings. Over the last four years this is estimated to be between R6 million to R7 million per annum.
To date SANParks has provided schools with an administrations building, science and computer laboratories, mobile libraries, playgrounds, kitchen facilities, ablutions and school desks to mention a few. During the 2020-2021 year as part of the SANParks COVID Relief Programme, the Social Legacy Fund invested its proceeds to provide much needed support in the form of food hampers to 8 500 needy families, 80 water tanks, hand sanitisers and surgical masks to communities neighbouring our national parks,” concluded Dlamini.
Many of these pensioners provide for their entire family, so having new opportunities to do so has been an exciting one. The initiative offers the ladies a hand up instead of a handout.
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