Vegetable garden with fruit trees at Thuthukani Clinic

RELATED LINKS: Eco-City: Turning hopelessness around at Ivory Park The sprawling shack settlement of Ivory Park once epitomised hopelessness. But since 1999, small but steady dents have been made in that despair, thanks to initiatives that have looked more closely at the damaged environment and how local people could live more harmoniously with it. Read more Ivory Park gets a community centre Ivory Park, an informal settlement about 10km outside Midrand in the far north of Johannesburg, will soon have its own fully equipped community centre - thanks to a R13-million funding from the council and the provincial government. Read more Arbor Day brings trees of life to HIV patients Green stuff is good for you - and that's official. Spending time in the relaxing natural surroundings of a garden can contribute to your good health, and that's what has been prescribed for patients at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital. Read more Joburg's first trees It's hard to believe when you stand on one of Johannesburg's ridges and look out over the virtual forest that makes up the northern suburbs that the city used to be a barren rocky veld dotted with an odd shrub and several streams. Read more Gardens for hunger and healing When volunteers from Thuthukani clinic in Ivory Park, north of Johannesburg, began doing home visits to administer medicine to people suffering from Aids and TB, they found that most of them had no food. Read more

Councillor Prema Naidoo delivers a speech in Ivory Park

Ivory Park tackles poverty October 20, 2003 By Tshepiso Mogotsi A WHITE stinkwood tree was planted in Ivory Park, near Midrand, on Friday 17 October as a symbol of prosperity in the global fight against poverty. The planting of the tree coincided with World Poverty Day. Non-governmental organisation Food and Trees for Africa joined representatives from the Johannesburg City Council to commemorate World Poverty Day at the Lord Khanyile Multipurpose Centre in the township. Food and Trees for Africa has been working in the destitute areas of Ivory Park since 1995, helping the community to establish food gardens and green their environment. White stinkwood tree planted in Ivory Park Queues of curious onlookers, gathered at the centre to collect pension and social benefit payouts, watched as the stinkwood tree (celtis africana) was planted as "a symbol of unity, peace, prosperity and partnership in the fight against poverty". Food and Trees for Africa's Joe Matimba reminded everyone of the ongoing battle against poverty while representatives from Johannesburg's social services department, Carina van Zyl and Happy Mphelo, planted the small tree in the waiting hole. One of the major projects undertaken by Food and Trees for Africa in Ivory Park is that of managing a vegetable garden and fruit trees at the nearby Thuthukani Clinic. Here community volunteers grow foods such as cabbage, spinach, beetroot, onion and carrots. The harvested crops are then donated to the clinic's HIV/Aids and chronically ill patients. City Councillor Prema Naidoo, mayoral committee member responsible for health, commended the work of the community and Food and Trees for Africa. "People with HIV/Aids needed a healthy diet in order to live positively," Naidoo said. "Fresh vegetables and herbs boost patients' immune systems," added the social services manager for Region 1 and Region 2, Van Zyl. The New Zealand High Commission in South Africa funds the Thuthukani vegetable garden project. Foods and Trees for Africa has, in the eight years it has operated in Ivory Park, overseen the planting of more than 1 000 trees around the township. On Friday the organisation donated another 100 trees to the Unathi Clean-up and Educational Project, which will distribute the trees to the residents of the area. Permission to use web site material Publishers may use material from this site free of charge, as long as: Credit is given to either the "City of Johannesburg website (www.joburg.org.za)" or to "Johannesburg News Agency (www.joburg.org.za)"; If the article is used online, a link is provided to the original article on this website; The name of the article's author is acknowledged; The webmaster is informed of how and where the material is used (fill in this brief online form). Johannesburg News Agency is operated by BIG Media at 011-484-1400 Print this Page E-mail this article to a friend Help using Joburg.org.za