December 2009                   

"A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in." - Greek proverb

Last week we marked World Aids Day 2009 with the welcome news that HIV prevalence is on the decrease, as reported by UNAIDS and the World Health Organisation. While the reasons for decling infection rates over the past 9 years are still unclear, many attribute this to the success of prevention education programmes as well as disease epidemiology. Thanks to increased availability of antiretroviral treatment, and successful programmes to reduce mother to child transmission, many people with HIV also are now living longer.To read more about this visit UNAIDS

Unfortunately the story for many doesn't end here. There are still 22.4 million people living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa today - with another 1.9 million newly infected adults and children every year - who struggle to carry out their daily tasks as carers and providers.  

How is GardenAfrica's work relevant to people living with HIV/AIDS ?

In the context of our work, many of the people we train and support are HIV positive, or care for others who are affected. GardenAfrica focuses on increasing access to nutritious food to build natural immune responses as a complement to anti-retroviral treatment.  Cultivating and using traditional herbs is also an effective and accessible way of defending against the many opportunistic infections which further complicate the condition, and speed up viral decline.  

The conservation of indigenous medicinal species, now under threat as a result of over exploitation, is another critical area in which we are actively engaged.

GardenAfrica trains in natural cultivation systems because immune suppression has been found to be higher in African farming communities using high levels of pesticides and fertilisers.  Exposure to organo-phosphates (in fertilisers) and carbomate (in pesticides) during spraying and threshing has been found to reduce T-cell proliferation and cell-mediated immunity in a range of mammals, including humans. This affects those already living with HIV/AIDS, and is thought to increase susceptibility to HIV infection, especially in women who traditionally carry out these tasks. 

While there is still some disagreement amongst research bodies on the nutritional benefits of organic produce, the FAO found that organically produced foods (which are less forced) contain higher levels of health promoting secondary compounds (vitamins) and anti-oxidants. According to the current  €12 million, four year EU study (due for publication in 2010), the difference is so marked that, in some cases, it can increase nutrient intake by up to 40% for those unable to meet their ‘5 a day’ requirement.

In fact, an increasing number of clinical practitioners in sub-Saharan Africa are now advocating the shift from conventionally to organically produced foods, to avoid absorption of synthetic residues by people affected by HIV/AIDS. 

Our producers are rising to the challenge, growing healthy fruits and vegetables for family, neighbours and markets, as well as teaching others how to grow their own.

Appeal:

This Christmas please help us to support more children, like 14 year old Charles, who work tirelessly to care for their HIV+ parents.

Charles lives in South Africa. At 14 he is small for his age, the result of a lifetime of malnutrition. GardenAfrica set up a training garden at his school, where he has learned to grow food. In the school garden Charles comes alive, helping to harvest crops for lunch with his fellow students, and taking some of the green waste, like this stock melon, to a local goat herder in return for milk for his family. He now is building up his strength to set up a home garden so he can support mother.

Click here to help Charles and other children like him this Christmas.

Other ways you can help us to support others:

Gifts for Good

Why not purchase a friend or loved one a special GardenAfrica Gift for Good this Christmas

These include items like tools, seedlings, a water harvesting kit, a bee hive or a chicken tractor to build garden fertility and provide an important source of protein. Buy your Gifit for Good directly from our wbsite, and we will send a bespoke card detailing where it will be going, which we can send either to you, or directly to the recipient complete with a personal message from you.

Fundraising

Londoner Stewart Horne ran his first ever marathon this autumn for GardenAfrica. Here he describes the experience:

“Dear Sponsors -
Thank you so much for your support in my preparation and training for my first marathon, and for helping me to raise over £1200 for GardenAfrica at the time of their urgent appeal for funds. Your sponsorship will go a long way to helping communities achieve conservation, food security and rebuild lost community skills in South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Swaziland – supporting their gardens in schools, hospitals and homesteads. As well as making a huge difference to their lives, you helped me beat the four hour mark for my first marathon – in fact I managed to finish in 3 hours and 52 minutes – smashing my ambition to finish in under 4 ½ hours. At 28km I realised what all the fuss was about and the pain and fatigue really started to kick in but I persevered and upon entering the Olympic stadium I had enough energy left for a sprint finish before I collapsed in a heap at the end. Here’s a photo of me (looking suitably exhausted) and my wife (probably hoping I won’t do this again), at the end with my medal the stadium and motivational GardenAfrica cheering poster. - Stewart”

Why Steward chose to support GardenAfrica

• We work closely with local partners who are vital for the extension of appropriately targeted, community-based support, areas rarely touched by large organisations or government services
• We can identify effective Southern organisations and support them with a lighter touch and lower transaction costs, making your money go further
• With our local partners we are able to develop and trial new ideas which are truly sustainable for recipient communities, where other approaches may have failed them
• In working with local partners in the South we often understand the context better, and bring our own ‘assets’ to the development process
• Small organisations and their networks have the potential to bring a different voice to development debates
• And critically, small organisations are often disadvantaged when applying for funding

Please help us to support fellow gardeners now, and for the future.

And when you’ve made your donation, please remember to send us an email, letting us know who you are, what you did, and how much you raised.  We’d love to publish pictures of your event on our website, so please send them in too.

THANK YOU.

Tales from the Dome

The story from GAHQ this month is that it’s getting cold.  We are attempting to over-winter some crops in the dome, but do need to spend some time to make it water-tight (this was a job left for me by Paul from Geo-Dome which has been horribly neglected.)

Still got some leaks, beetroot and cabbages on the go.  We enjoyed our super-sweet sweet corn enormously, and are still getting through our pumpkins and butternut squashes. 

Having worried about our incomplete water harvesting system earlier in the year, our water catchment area (otherwise known as the pond) is now struggling to keep up – what with all the rain we’ve had.  But as the trees reveal their willowy structures, we’re raring to get out and prune those fruit trees.  Just waiting for the rain to stop. 

Thanks to Valerie Ferguson and Bob Close to providing fabulous chutney recipes for those green tomatoes we were left with after our rapid case of blight.  Absolutely delicious.    

Send this newsletter to a Friend

If you have a friend or colleague who might be interested in finding out more about the work of GardenAfrica, please pass this eNewsletter on to them by clicking on the ‘forward’ tab below.

Alternately, email their details to info@gardenafrica.org.uk and we will send them the eNewsletter.

Also in this issue:

• Christmas Appeal & Gifts for Good
• Thanks to our donors
• Ideas for fundraising
• Things to do in your garden in Dec
• Introducing: Ivili.org
• Seasonal Recipes (celery soup & pears in honey)
• Tales from the Dome

Buy your GardenAfrica Christmas cards direct from us:

Visit our new website, and purchase your GardenAfrica Christmas Cards directly from us, or contact us at 01435 882 475 for more information.  There are 10 cards in each pack, at a cost of £.25 per pack (incl. P&P)

Last quarters Swaziland Appeal:

GardenAfrica would like to thank those who responded so generously to our appeal for Swaziland last quarter, ensuring the security of this project and its beneficiaries:

• Talacre Beach Leisure Parks
• Erach & Roshan Sadri Foundation
• Rowan Trust
• Stanley Smith Horticultural Trust
• Scotshill Trust
• Stewart Horne, who went further than most – 28 miles in fact! More below.

If you're planning to host a gathering, or doing a sponsored event for GardenAfrica, then please do call us on 01435 882 475 and we can send you an information pack.

Thanks to our family of volunteers, over 90% of your donations go directly to our projects.

Things to do in yourica.org.uk/r garden this December:

• Harvest leeks, parsnips, winter cabbage, sprouts and remaining root crops
• Prune apple and pear trees
• Lift celery
• Insulate worm bins for the winter to keep worms active and producing compost.
• Sow garlic
• Use the long evenings indoors to prepare your garden plan for next year

Introducing:  Ivili.org - innovations for sustainable living

An online video magazine sharing sustainable solutions around the world with no profit motive, Ivili.org is a free and ever-growing library of tools, solutions and inspirations for sustainable living. Whether you are looking for advice on sustainable living, such as growing food in your garden using Permaculture techniques or generating your electricity in a more eco-friendly way; or if you want ideas for community projects that might work in your own area; or are keen to volunteer on an environmental project but don't know what's out there; or perhaps you are a funder looking to support essential work in an area you are passionate about, then Ivili is a unique place to go. Ivili is a Xhosa word meaning wheel and this website will stop you from reinventing it!

Seasonal recipes

Celery Soup

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, chopped
½ red onion, chopped
150g/5½oz celery, chopped
200ml/7fl oz hot vegetable or chicken stock
Bread to serve 

Method
1. Heat the oil in a saucepan and cook the garlic, onion and celery over a low heat for five minutes, until softened.
2. Add the chicken stock and simmer for 10-12 minutes.
3. Transfer the soup to a blender and liquidise.
4. To serve, place the soup into a bowl with toasted bread alongside.

Baked pears in honey

Ingredients

4 pears
4 cloves
4 cardamom pods, crushed
a pinch of golden caster sugar
a pinch of ground cinnamon
60g/4 tbsp of clear honey
290ml/10fl oz boiling water
Cream to serve if wanted

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6.
2. Peel and core the pears, leaving the stalks on. Stick a clove in each of the pears and lay them on their sides in an ovenproof dish.
3. Scatter the broken cardamom pods over the pears and sprinkle with the cinnamon.
4. In a small pan dissolve the sugar and the honey in the water and bring to the boil. Boil for 2 minutes.
5. Pour the syrup over the pears and bake in the oven for 1 hour or until tender. Turn the pears occasionally and baste frequently.
6. Serve warm with cream if desired and pour a little more syrup over the top to finish.

GardenAfrica Blog

GardenAfrica blogger – the Muswell Hillbilly
Read about what’s new in the Muswell Hillbilly’s London garden this month.

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