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The Ntandabantu Women's Project in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa.

South Africa

Ntandabantu Women's Project, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa

The prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the village of Ntandbantu has resulted in many children being orphaned. The population now consists largely of elderly women and children, with households supporting up to 16 children, or children themselves, heading up households.

The HIV/AIDS epidemic, which affects an estimated 45% of the local population, means that the value of pension payments to the elderly is being eroded by the cost of transporting sick household members to the nearest clinic, and buying medicines and food for them. The time taken to care for sick family members means that the elderly, who used to spend time in their vegetable gardens, are no longer able to do so. And, with scarce rainfall and no piped water, gardens suffer.

Despite the importance of oral tradition, many elders remain unaware that, with the loss of the median generation to AIDS, they must now pass traditional techniques in cultivation and cooking on to the next generation.

The project is centred upon the creation of a food and medicinal herb garden, with the aim of addressing poor nutrition, and access to food. Underpinning this project is the need to re-establish oral tradition as central to reforming and extending traditional knowledge and support to this most vulnerable group. To kick-start this process, we began with a schools competition designed to encourage children to ask questions relating to indigenous knowledge - such as wildlife, medicine and foods. The children were provided with colour pens and pencils, none of whom had used colour before. The results were vibrant and exciting. From this we have gained a valuable insight into local life; informing planting and ensuring that the project is sensitive to local needs and tradition. GardenAfrica is providing training and support in sustainable land and resource management to ensure that these dynamic women can extend this support to other child-headed households in the village.

The project has now trained 30 carers in sustainable food and medicinal plant cultivation to relieve the pressure on this group of elderly women, and is now at the centre of community exchange and activity. The project has combined capacity to harvest and store 90,000 litres of rain water for drinking, sanitation and irrigation. This initiative has now been integrated into a growing local organisation called the Mtuba Christian Academy, who continues to provide support to sustain the 1 hectare gardens at two community schools where the food and medicinal gardens are sited. With your help, we can continue support for this project, which will increase capacity for water storage at home, for drinking, sanitation and irrigation to enable production at homesteads.

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