In the last year of the coronavirus lockdown, it became urgently clear that hunger is more threatening than the virus. No work for parents, closed daycare and feeding stations for children. Food is scarce. Crushing poverty everywhere. An example from Elandsdoorn: A corrugated iron hut with approx. 16 m2 (4×4 meters), 11 people live here. 2 women look after 7 of their own children and two orphans. The only source of income is the state child allowance for the two orphans: the equivalent of approx. 25 euros per month.
Bitter poverty, which the Ndlovu Care Group has declared war on. Hugo Tempelman has an amazing ability. His motto: Never waste a good crisis. Due to the lockdown, people are no longer allowed to come to eat, so the food comes to the people.
Foodgardens as sustainable and lasting help
A large-scale fundraising campaign ensured a regular supply of food parcels. Here, too, the supporters of the Hugo Tempelman Foundation actively helped. The new Foodgardens project serves to turn this help into sustainability and consistency.
The goal: to enable many people to be self-sufficient.
The way: to create vegetable gardens for every house.
The difficulty: little to no skills and experience in growing vegetables and a great shortage of water in the surrounding area.
The vegetable gardens of the Ndlovu Care Group, which were no longer used daily to provide food for the wards, were converted into seedling farms. Vegetables were grown here in advance and then distributed to households. The Ndlovu Care Group employees were all involved in this extensive project: Growing the seedlings, visiting all households to prepare the vegetable gardens and teaching the necessary skills, establishing the gardens together with the families.
There are now almost 2,000 gardens in total. With the support of the Hugo Tempelman Foundation and the RTL: Wir helfen Kindern foundation, a total of 750 gardens have been created.
Beauty’s garden is a prime example
On our trip in November, we were able to see the success of this project for ourselves. Green gardens everywhere, with people taking intensive care of them. We visited Beauty and her family. Since her father died, her mother has had to look after her four children on her own. Beauty and her sister each have two small children from older men, but they do not take on the role of father. The women now look after nine people in the family. Due to the pregnancies and caring for the children, Beauty initially stopped going to school. This brought her to the attention of the social workers from the Ndlovu Care Group, who took care of the family from then on and supported them wherever they could.
The garden that Beauty and her sister cultivate is growing and thriving. Lettuce, pumpkins, spinach, tomatoes and carrots grow here. There are also mango trees in the yard, which are protected from the goats in small brick towers. The garden is such a great help to the family that a second section is now being separated off and another garden is being planted.
The girls have no work, but they enjoy looking after their garden. Beauty and her family’s yard is exceptionally well-kept and well-organized. The social workers reported that the gardens are not just for self-sufficiency. They also bring a sense of purpose and structure to people’s often listless everyday lives.
We have convinced ourselves that this project is another important building block in helping people to help themselves.
Beauty and her little baby on her farm.
