Winner — Environmental best practice for community-based organisations: Sizanani Permaculture Project
When Gugu Mdlalose, a natural science teacher at Sizanani Primary School in Dube, Soweto, started a small food gardening project in her school in the late 1990s, she did not anticipate the effect this would have on her poverty-stricken community. Neither did she know it would bring her the 2004 Woolworths Trust Eduplant Programme award for the Gauteng province.
“All I wanted to do was to supplement the government-sponsored feeding scheme at my school because it was not enough for the children, most of whom are from disadvantaged backgrounds,” Mdlalose said this week.
Looking back, Mdlalose realises today just how significant a role the project has played, not only in eradicating poverty, but in reducing the high level of unemployment in Dube and the surrounding communities in Soweto.
Soon after its beginning, she noted the impact the project had on children from poor families and decided to involve the wider community, mostly unemployed women.
She teamed up with community members to clear up a piece of land used as a dumping area near the school. To ensure that the project was successful, she approached Food and Trees for Africa to help train community members plant vegetables and encouraged them to start their own businesses after completing their training.
Food and Trees for Africa is a non-governmental organisation started by a group of concerned individuals, representing the major greening organisations.
Its objectives are, among other things, to contribute to greening, develop sustainable natural resource management and food security, and create awareness of the benefits of environmental upliftment among all the communities in Southern Africa.
Mdlalose says that with the help of Food and Trees for Africa, she managed to train about 25 women, most of whom successfully started their own businesses selling vegetables to the community.
“It is such a pleasure for me to see members of the community being able to earn a living as a result of the project. Those who were unemployed are no longer complaining — they spend most of their time in gardens planting vegetables and are able to feed their families and generate some income for themselves,” says Mdlalose.
She says her gardening project has made a huge difference in the lives of orphaned children in the area, as they can now fend for themselves.
“What makes me happy is that I am producing a new generation that is able to look after itself. Most of the children we have trained have no parents. They stay with their grannies. I am teaching them how to take care of themselves,” says Mdlalose.
Ryan Dickey, a project coordinator at Food and Trees for Africa, says the organisation was honoured to work with Sizanani under the leadership of Mdlalose.
“She has been an amazing example of a dedicated individual who practises what she preaches and has assisted directly with poverty alleviation and skills development in the community,” says Dickey.
“Mdlalose has been an exceptional leader and coordinator for the Sizanani project. Her efforts have gone beyond school hours in establishing the sustainability of the schools project.”
In 2004 Sizanani primary school, under the leadership of Mdlalose, won the first prize in the Woolworths Trust Eduplant Programme, beating more than 430 schools from Gauteng that entered the perma-culture, food and gardening competition.
The category is sponsored by Nedbank