Hello once again to all. Hopefully we will be seeing quite a few new recipients this month, especially after the Backpacker South Africa AGM that we presented the Trust at. So, thanks to Deborah of BSA for setting that up for us, we had great response from the attendees and we have already seen some very positive results coming from it.

To the new BSA sign-on's welcome on board, and please let us know what's happening in your area's!

Those of you who have been receiving the newsletter for a while will hopefully start to notice some changes over the next few coming months as we will be getting more exposure with some other larger organisations. Exciting stuff!

We are still on the look-out for new start up projects, especially in the greater Cape Town metropolitan area, so please do keep your ears to the ground. Obviously if you are aware of stunning project outside the greater Cape Town area let us know about that too.

We have been having one or two hiccups with the website, so for those that have been trying to donate on-line, our most humble apologies (no really, we are extremely sorry), but we will have worked out the bugs by the middle of next week, so please don't go away.

On a final note, hopefully everyone is looking forward to the month of the year with the least amount of days in between pay-day's, so have a great time in March!

Keep spreading the word, and thanks for your support. 

Breadline Africa and the Makundu project

Makundu was started by a farming couple in Mpumalanga who became aware of the plight of child-headed households in their area. This area, that is situated between the southern border of the Kruger Park, the northern border of Swaziland and the western border of Mozambique, is extremely poor and HIV related death rates are very high.  Whilst many of the people are South Africans there is a sizable number who have settled in the villages who hail from the surrounding countries.

Initially Inky and Rollo Granville (pictured above) fed the children from surplus from their farm which grows vegetables, fruit and sugar cane. Nowadays, as a result of Breadline Africa and others support, they are able to provide over 2000 children in 8 villages with packages of food containing protein, starch and fresh fruit and vegetables. They also maintain a database of the children who are vulnerable to ill-health and neglect. Every Saturday food parcels are delivered to the children in all the 8 villages and their health and wellbeing is assessed.

 

It has also become clear that where the eldest child in the family units is in charge of his/her siblings there has been a great burden in terms of time. The chores of caring and cooking for themselves and the younger children means that the elder children were not able to concentrate on their school work, which then suffered. As a result through funding secured by Breadline Africa,  Makundu has built 2 centres to cater for these child-headed households. These centres provide 2-3 cooked meals a day for over 40 child headed households. The centres are cared for by an adult who also supervises the children's homework in the afternoon and otherwise ensures that their needs are catered for and that they have an adult to come to with their problems. 

The Judah Square Community

As per usual this vibrant community outside Knysna has been taking the bull by the horns and tackling a whole range of projects in the three months since we have last featured them. Brother Mau Mau and Sister Leah have been putting the finishing touches on their Rise and Shine Ital Restaurant which is due for its official opening later in March (no fixed dates yet I'm afraid). Part of the food being cooked in the restaurant is going to be sourced from the community itself as Mama Bee and Sister Kerri, who have perma-culture experience, will be helping community members with their own vege gardens.

The creche has managed to complete the two additional rooms they've been working on and they are finishing up on the extra toilet that will be catering to the extra 15 kids they've been able to take in.

On the theme of education, the community members are developing skills as fast as they can with Brother Maxi (the driving force behind the Khayalethu river trail) having just finished a three day course in conservation with Cape Nature. Brother Zeb and Brother Paul have also attended the tourism training course that the Nomad African Trust organised for them with the Tourism Enterprise Partnership. With a bit of luck and hard work this will see them being the first representatives from the community going to the Indaba travel show later this year.

Finally, it looks like the word is really starting to get out there about just how amazing this community is with SABC 1 just having completed filming a documentary for their series Spirit Sunday. Hats off to you all!


Jane Goodall Institute-South Africa and Roots and Shoots

We just can't seem to get enough time to cover everything that this amazing organisation is up to so we've added in a follow-up spot from last month's newsletter. Twenty members of Roots & Shoots Soweto have just visited the Big Five at the Pilansberg National Park in the North West province. The two day trip introduced current and new members of Roots & Shoots groups from Kliptown and Lehae to the fauna and flora found in the unique environment of the Pilansberg National Park.

The group stayed at the Bosele Youth Camp (pictured below), but didn't spend much time at the camp on the first day and very soon after arriving headed off for a game drive in the reserve. Provided with questionnaires encouraging people to learn more about the geology, ecology and species found in the game reserve, everyone was excited to spot the big five species. Although game viewing was sparse at times the group was lucky enough to see elephant, giraffe, buck, baboons and even got to have a close encounter with a Rhino.

The group later convened at the education centre at the camp site to brainstorm about how best to incorporate new ideas about wildlife and conservation into their groups and create projects relevant to their communities.