IDEX Program Officers, Kat and Vini recently went on field visits in South Africa to research groups IDEX could support through our catalyst grants program. This blog post comes from Kat, who visited RUCORE at the end of April.

Mambulu is a rural village 3 hours from Durban, and over an hour from Kranskrop, where the paved road ends. From there the rest of my trip was on a winding dirt road bouncing up and down the mountains of Zululand to reach Mambulu. I was on my way to visit the Thandanani Food Garden, established by local community leader Joseph Gewabaza with the support of RUCORE.

RUCORE, Rural Educational Development Corporation, was founded in 1991 to support the development of a living and learning center that promotes ecological approaches to sustainable community development. RUCORE initiated its support with the establishment of the Tlholego Village in 1990 near Rustenburg in the Northwest Province. It is here that Joseph was trained in sustainable agriculture, permaculture and ecological land use design.

Joseph is originally from Mambulu Village and but met Paul Cohen, the founder of RUCORE, in Johannesburg. Joseph learned about RUCORE’s work in the Tlholego Village and volunteered to be trained for a two-year apprenticeship. He wanted to see if he could replicate the model in his own village. He asked his community at the Mambulu Village, whether they would give him permission to go to bring back this expertise to his community and they approved.

After his two-year apprenticeship Joseph returned to Mambulu Village in 2000, and initiated the Thandanani Vegetable Gardens, which today has 90 community members, mostly women, working in them.

Thandanani means, "love each other" in Zulu. It also represents the important source of food security that comes from the garden and inspires community members to care and work together. The 90 community members come to the garden three times a week to work on the garden. All of them come together so that everyone can see each other working and it encourages trust among the members.

When I arrived there were around 30 women preparing the land for the fall season. In this garden they have cultivated cabbage, spinach, onions, green peppers, tomatoes, beetroots, corn and potatoes. Their main challenge is the lack of water; the nearest river is two-hour round trip by foot. The women organize shifts to collect water. Every morning at 8am, one group of women will go the river; another group sets off at noon. This way they can just about keep their plants watered.

Since they started the garden, they no longer have to spend time and money (US$2.20 per trip) traveling on the dirt road to Kranskrop to buy food. They’ve also been able to get the local municipality to support them with fencing to protect their garden. But this support is insignificant compared to the help received by nearby communities who use conventional farming methods.

Like many countries, South Africa is more supportive of conventional farming than organic farming. In spite of the women of the Thandanani Food Garden are determined to continue organic agricultural practices. Recently, the village won a local vegetable competition. They won quite simply because they had the highest quality vegetables.

Their commitment was evident. After meeting me the women went straight back to work in their garden. Without the garden they would have limited sources of income with which to buy food and cover other costs.

Now that they have food security for their households, their next goal is to grow enough to sell some vegetables and earn an income. After this they have plans to start community initiatives such as a new clinic and a kindergarten for their children. Currently they have to travel to get health care and go to school.

At Kranskrop we sought out Joseph to say goodbye. In addition to working with the Thandanani Food Garden he has a full time job as a minibus taxi driver. Always smiling, he waved us goodbye as people began to fill up his van.

Labels: RUCORE, South Africa, Thandanani Food Garden

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