My name is Grace and I’m a GlobalGiving Ambassador by way of Net Impact.  My friend Flavia and I recently took a trip to visit the project listed as “Capacity Building: Urban Farming and Gardening” in Cape Town, South Africa from Nov 24- Dec 4.  This is the first in a series on some of the accounts from my trip.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

We fought rush hour traffic into downtown Cape Town to find Julie at the office of The Business Place (TBP). TBP is a nonprofit consulting organization that helps small business owners to promote entrepreneurship.  I learned that the South African government has adopted the TBP model and has their own version of it called, Red Door, though the two are not integrated currently.

We were then picked up by Rob Small of Abalimi who led us to Guguletu, one of the townships (what they call the slums) where Abalimi works.  I like to think of Guguletu as the gateway to the townships because it’s the first one you encounter when driving west from the city proper.

When I discovered that mostly older women (called the “mamas”) are the gardeners, Rob explained that women and men perceive the gardening differently - men would rather sell all the produce for cash immediately, while women would rather cook the produce for their families and give some to people in need in their communities before selling the surplus for cash.  As a result, adjacent gardens, which are exclusive to men or women, will compete with each other!

I was amazed at the energy these mamas have even in their golden years. The oldest Guguletu mama Gladys is 85 years old! Gladys has 13 children,22 grandchildren and 21 great grandchildren. Dumbfounded, I ask her why no one my age is working in the garden, to which she replies “They are lazy and won’t work.” Rob adds, “They want to be like you, Grace, going places in your car with your cell phone.”

Here’s a video of Big Mama Regina brainstorming with us on how to stop the mole parades through the Guguletu garden.

Abalimi’s newest initiative is called Harvest of Hope. It is a social enterprise where buyers purchase contracts of certain crops. The gardens phone in their harvest inventory, and Abalimi acts a broker to find a buyer - usually an ethical cooperative or a LETS (Local Economic Trading Society). It reminds me of New York City’s community-supported agriculture program, Just Food.

Later that afternoon, Rob drove us through Khayelitsha township, which is one of the larger townships in Cape Town. I was surprised to find economic disparity even within a township. Housing ranged from shanties of corrugated metal sheets and slabs of wood to brightly colored houses with glass windows and gated entryways.

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