Julie's Reflections on Abalimi

Today, I sat down in front of my laptop, determined to recall every meaningful detail from my first day at my activism project. As all good 10 Loch Road-ians know, a proviso within Marita's syllabus requires that in addition to attending our classes and internships, we must also do a minimum of 12 hours of volunteering not connected or similar to the area of activism that our internships serve. For me, that meant finding a position volunteering that did not involve some form of tutoring or work in a school. Seeing as that requirement edged out many of the options I would have normally pursued, I had to be a bit more creative in my efforts to find an activist project. I understood that this stipulation was established with the aim of enabling all of us to get a more diverse understanding of the myriad of social initiatives South Africa has to offer. Even so, it proved challenging to find an organization that fit me as well as my placement at Thandokhulu. However, having spent the better part of two days learning and working at my newfound placement, I can honestly say I'm satisfied with my choice. The following blog entry is my attempt at a summation of the first day I spent at my activism project.

It took several weeks of slow e-mail correspondence with a few potential organizations before I finally found an NGO that needed my particular brand of help and piqued my interest. In a cursory Google search of "volunteering in Cape Town," I came across the website for Abalimi Bezekhaya, a very unique urban agriculture (UA) and environmental action (EA) association whose tentative roots were set down in the very midst of the era of apartheid in South Africa.

Abalimi (a word meaning “The Planters” in Xhosa) was founded in 1982 with the simple goal of helping starving people living in townships to subsist by teaching them to grow their own fruits and vegetables in the small patches of earth beside their homes. The restrictions of apartheid made operations involving large-scale gardening movements impossible, but as the apartheid regime began to fall apart, the organization's focus began to shift to grander objectives. With the first democratic elections in 1994, funding from the government became available, allowing for vast expansion from the Home Garden Movement to one that focused on helping those gardeners become farmers and entrepreneurs. In other words, the organization began to focus on transforming the level of gardening/harvesting being done from “subsistence” to “semi-commercialism.” Small personal gardens were expanded, the skills taught were more refined, larger cooperative farms were established to increase production, and thusly, sources of legitimate revenue were created within the townships.

After emailing the website for more information about potential volunteer openings, I was contacted by Abalimi’s resource mobilization manager, Rob Small. He requested that I attend a "Tuesday tour" before deciding on where I wanted to volunteer in the organization. In order to better understand how the organization serves the townships, he said, I would have to see the entire process from start to finish.

On I set off for Kenilworth Station to meet Rob, who agreed to pick me up to begin our 9-12 tour of Abalimi. After a short, incident free minibus ride, I arrived at my destination and hopped in the car with Rob. The tour officially started at the Fezeka Garden in Guguletu. Rob explained that this garden was one example of a home garden that expanded into a cooperative community garden with the help and support of the organization. The garden is 500 sq meters, and staffed by only six elderly women, one of whom spoke to me that day. Mama Gladys, who is 86 years old, was hard at work when we arrived, tending to the vast range of vegetables grown at Fezeka. The neatly tended sections were each labeled, with separate patches for eggplant, squash, lettuce, carrots, potatoes, peas, leeks, and mealies (corn), just to name a few. Much of the produce is eaten by the friends and families of the gardeners, but part of the excess is sold to members of the community in Guguletu. Rob proudly told us that Fezeka was also one of 15 community gardens that provided organic produce to the next stop on the tour: the Harvest of Hope headquarters in Philippi.

Mama Gladys and the rest of the very lively Fezeka ladies holding up their Female Gardener of the Year Award

Harvest of Hope was started in the beginning of 2008 when Abalimi’s staff began to notice a need for a dependable market of customers for the entrepreneur farmers to sell their produce. Rob explained that while there are people with food and no money, and also people with money and no food, it is often difficult for those people to find one another to do business. Making the jump from simple gardening to commercial farming is difficult for those who attempt it because much of the produce they grow cannot be sold quickly enough. The waste and costliness of growing more than can be potentially sold is a main deterrent in discouraging amateur gardeners from moving to farming as a main source of income. This, Rob explained, was where Harvest of Hope comes in. Every Tuesday, this organization collects the excess of harvested vegetables from the 15 contracted gardens, washing, packaging, and distributing it to hungry local customers. Some of the customers are simply individuals and families who order the organic produce weekly, but most of the produce is earmarked for local schools as food for the learners. This weekly process assures that township farmers always have an income, encouraging the creation of environmentally sound farming and the creation of jobs and creating a viable produce market for the future.

Working hard in the Fezeka Garden in Guguletu

The next stop on our journey was the Garden Center in Nyanga East. This center was established when the first center (in Athlone, 1982), was moved in 1985. The Garden Center, as Rob explained, is "where it all began" with the start of the Home Gardening Movement. Since its establishment, the Garden Center has helped to supply and consult gardening beginners in the surrounding townships. The center first simply supplied seed, compost, tools, and other necessities for gardening and farming, as well as offering classes helping gardening novices to start their own small gardens in their neighborhoods. As the organization expanded, however, classes offered have become more specialized to help gardeners expand their gardens into sources of income for their families and communities. This connects directly back to gardens like the Fezeka Garden, who have benefited directly from Abalimi's services.

I had my first real day working alongside Mama Gladys at the Fezeka garden today, but I will save that story for another blog entry. I will say that I am extremely pleased to have the opportunity to learn from the people involved in this very special organization.