In 2009, funds were made available by the Hyde Park Shopping Centre for the implementation of a Permaculture food garden project at Rietvallei Secondary School near Kagiso in Gauteng. As this deserving project had made a success of the initial funding, it was presented as a potential project to Pangea to send a group of their volunteers to help to develop the gardens.
The volunteers came from various communities bringing with them their interest, willingness to learn and eager participation as they helped set up the Permaculture food garden for the coming spring season.
The volunteers’ day was a great success. The volunteers gained an opportunity to learn Permaculture aspects, concepts, ethics and principles and we trust this knowledge will be shared with others, benefitting the residents of Rietvallei and neighbouring communities. The learners and educators were motivated and empowered to take charge of greening their school environment.
ConVista Consulting (Pty) Ltd contacted Food & Trees for Africa (FTFA), with exciting news in November 2009. ConVista’s German parent company had funds to invest in sustainable projects in South Africa. FTFA proposed the Khayelitsha Special School (KSS) at which FTFA had recently planted trees to offset the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative meeting in the Western Cape, which would benefit greatly from a Permaculture food garden.
Dame Helen Suzman, a patron of FTFA since its inception, sadly passed away at the end of 2008. Her generosity to FTFA continued after her passing when she bequethed R 50 000 to FTFA. This amounted to 555 trees, 85 of which were planted in October 2009 in celebration of the International Day of Climate Change Action. The remaining 470 trees were distributed on the 17th and 19th March 2010 respectively to community members of Cosmo City.