September 6, 2005
By Sipho Maduna
THE Siyakhana Food and Garden Project was launched at Bezuidenhout Park, in Bez Valley, in the east of Joburg, on Thursday, 1 September, to grow food for the needy.
Johannesburg City Parks, the City's environment unit, has allocated 1,5 hectares for a food and herb garden for needy children and adults, including many affected by and infected with HIV/Aids.
"Our role is to monitor the project and facilitate a community partnership in terms of greening," explained Jenny Moodley, the marketing and communications manager at City Parks.
Wits University's health promotion unit, the RB Hagart Trust and the Urban Greening Fund are sponsoring the Siyakhana Food and Garden Project. The health unit has a track record, having established similar programmes in rural and other urban areas. All are focused on food security.
Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang launched the project, joined by local councillors, officials from the South African Police Service and various prominent figures, such as boxer champ Jacob "Baby Jake" Matlala.
The Johannesburg Hospital Choir soothed the audience, while children from Kideo Creche wowed the crowd with their dancing.
"Our government alone cannot achieve sustainable food security for all people. This, therefore, calls for partnership with community-based organisations," Tshabalala-Msimang said.
Professor Michael Rudolph of Wits University added that the project was unique in the inner city. It also had a strong community base.
The university unit has been involved in civic engagement initiatives since 2002, aimed at improving quality of life among rural and urban communities. One of its focus areas is Joburg's inner city, Region 8.
"The project is selected for the communities of Bellevue, Bertrams, Berea, Joubert Park, Yeoville and the surrounding suburbs," Rudolph said.
It was initiated as a way of making fresh fruit, vegetables and herbs more accessible to non-governmental organisations (NGOs), community-based organisations (CBOs) working with home-based care patients, and children in early childhood development centres (ECDCs), with whom the unit worked in the inner city.
The home-based care patients range from a one-week-old baby to an adult, while the centres are comprised of children with and without HIV/Aids.
Rudolph said the NGOs, CBOs, ECDCs and participating individuals would develop life skills that would contribute to sustainable, healthy eating habits and livelihoods. The participating individuals are caregivers from the NGOs and people with HIV/Aids.
The health unit works with 18 NGOs and CBOs that have registered with the Wits Central Health Region.
Through Siyakhana, an alliance has been established with several partners, like Johannesburg City Parks, Food and Trees for Africa, Johannesburg Roads Agency, Cape Gate, Seagrit Foundation and representatives from various inner city NGOs and ECDCs.
Inner city ECDCs, NGOs and CBOs cater for about 18 000 people. Regarding food security, they are dependent on the meagre feeding scheme grant of R2 a day for each person.
Rudolph said children in the inner city were the most vulnerable to a range of health risks because of the poor environment in which they learned and played, inadequate management of crèches and a lack of sustainable health goals.
In the long run, participants will be helped to establish food and herb gardens as small- and medium-sized enterprises that will enable them to establish food gardens at other sites.
The skills development leg of the Siyakhana project will emphasize the establishment of plant nurseries, beekeeping units and earthworm, vegetable, fruit and herb production as businesses and for managing natural resources.
Bezuidenhout Park is one of the most popular central parks in Joburg. All sectors of the community visit it for recreation and leisure.
To conclude the launch of the Siyakhana project, the minister and Baby Jake planted two Dodenea Viscosa, or false cabbage, trees - one of this year's Arbor Day trees.
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