The road to Makapanstad is long and dusty and peppered with small communities eking out a living in the flat expanse of bushveld. Prieska, One Ten... the names flash past along with the cattle and donkeys. There is little water here, as is evidenced by the number of people pushing wheelbarrows loaded with plastic containers, and yet the nation’s capital, Pretoria, is only 70 or so kilometres away from this quiet, forgotten corner of the North West.

One would expect the people here to be without hope, living as they do in such difficult circumstances, but in a true testament to the power of the human spirit, key residents and teachers of the greater Moretele region have gathered this day at Makapanstad Primary School to prove quite the opposite, thanks to a community workshop with a difference.

The EduPlant One-day Permaculture food gardening workshop had the school’s tiny hall packed from wall to wall, with almost 160 adult bottoms perched precariously on tiny chairs as their owners pay serious attention to two animated women – Food & Trees for Africa workshop facilitators Sue Spies and cajun.

The EduPlant programme is a partnership of Absa, Engen and the Woolworths Trust, run by Food & Trees for Africa (FTFA) and gives educators and community leaders across South Africa the opportunity to learn how to make a significant and sustainable contribution to their communities, through the establishment of Permaculture gardens at schools.

At the workshops, people are taught the basics of Permaculture, from its economically efficient and ecologically friendly ethics to how, when used properly, Permaculture techniques can achieve food security for entire communities.

In the case of Makapanstad, the excitement of learning is palpable, and not just about how to grow fruit, herbs and vegetables. “I never thought I would learn so much about water and its importance,” says Sophy Msiza, representing Lengthen Middle School in the small community of Dertig. “I am going to go home and tell everyone to stop wasting water after hearing what Sue and cajun have told us,” she says with a determined frown.

Msiza and her peers were shocked to learn how very little of Earth’s water resources are reserved for every-day human use. This point is driven home in an exceptionally effective way by cajun standing in the middle of the hall on a chair, with a 1l bottle of water, a glass and a plastic teaspoon in her hand. Holding up the bottle of water, cajun asked everyone to imagine that the 1l container held all of the Earth’s water. She then “pours” out six teaspoons full, or 30ml, into the glass, telling everyone that the glass now represents all of the planet’s fresh water, “because the rest in the bottle is from the ocean and is full of salt.”

Then cajun poured from the glass a further teaspoonful, telling everyone that what is left in the glass can’t be used because it is frozen at the ice caps. Left with just one teaspoonful of water, cajun then explained that of this remaining water, the majority is underground, or held in the air as vapour and that only one, single drop of the teaspoonful is left for human use.

This sad fact is greeted with gasps of astonishment, and an involuntary round of applause. More excitement followed as Spies and cajun explain how to harvest rainwater, teaching everyone that for every square metre of tin roof that a mere 1mm of rainfall hits, one litre of water drains off. “So for a 300 sq m roof, that’s 300 litres that are lost! Imagine how much water is lost in an average rainfall of 200 or 300mm!” says Spies. Eyes light up all around the room as the mental arithmetic produces results. And as Spies and cajun demonstrated how a simple trench and mulch pits can channel that water into growing food and trees, more applause erupts.

“I think the message has hit home,” smiles David Sefolo, principle of Makapanstad Primary School, as he looks on from the sidelines. Indeed, the message is most definitely hitting home, because the EduPlant programme workshops are steadily growing in stature, attracting more and more participants year-on-year

“I noticed the swell in uptake first in the Eastern Cape, where I used to be based,” says Spies. “I have been facilitating for almost 18 years now, since the programme started, so it’s been amazing to see the exponential growth and the incredible progress that’s been made across the country,” she adds.

Last year alone, more than 8000 educators were reached with the EduPlant programme, which also distributes educational materials and runs a bi-annual competition. This year the programme has also launched a series of on-site cluster workshops which are aimed at providing schools with more plant materials, seeds, trees and educational resources to help their permaculture gardens become even more sustainable.

“I can’t wait to expand my garden,” says Msiza during a much needed tea break. “This programme has been so important to me and to Lengthen Middle School because it has changed the lives of the children for the better, with wonderful, nutritional food which we grow with our own hands. There is nothing like making a meal with spinach, tomatoes and onions you have grown from nothing,” she smiles. “I want to win the competition now, and feel sure I will, especially now that I know how to harvest rainwater!”