About GardenAfrica Charity
Wren Cottage
High Street, Burwash
East Sussex, TN19 7HA
+44 (0)1435 882 475
info@gardenafrica.org.uk
www.gardenafrica.org.uk
The Women of Ntandabantu - Mbulelu's Story
Having been decimated by poverty, drought and AIDS, GardenAfrica was invited to Ntandabantu to train a group of motivated elderly women to establish a vegetable garden at the local school to feed the many grandchildren and orphans left in their care.
Celebrating the arrival of tools, and the placement of water tanks to harvest water from the school roofs for irrigation and drinking, the women soon set about transforming their plot.
Having trained the group in cultivation techniques which are ideal for those who are weak and resource poor, their garden, now supplements the school feeding scheme - essential for the majority children for whom it will be the only meal of the day.
The garden has become a forum for sharing seed, ideas, and experiences - supporting inter-generational learning around traditional skills and food production with child-headed households - and ensuring that children like Mbulelu can remain in school.
As well as producing a healthy and varied diet to build natural immunity, this community of gardeners are now generating an income.
Having learnt to save seed and take cuttings from the school garden, Mbulelu started his own garden at home, where he catches rainwater for drinking and washing, and re-uses it for irrigation. His small garden regularly provides him with an excess of beans and pumpkin, which he trades with neighbours in return for things like this school uniform. After school he sells his grafted fruit trees, and offers his gardening services to others.
For as little as £15 children like Mbulelu could add a chicken arc to their gardens. In this moveable enclosure, the size of a vegetable bed, not only do chickens scratch and fertilise the hard, sun baked earth in preparation for planting, they provide a vital source of protein for a balanced diet.
In the longer-term GardenAfrica wants to plant fruit and shade trees in more school gardens; buy more water tanks, and develop more seedling nurseries so that more people can have access to sustainable sources of food & income.