Partnership will improve community's food security

For the past decade Humana's Child Aid Doornkop project has worked side by side with community members to start vegetable gardens and the donation made by PPC makes it possible to continue this development at a new level. Child Aid Doornkop has received funding of close to R150 000 from PPC to boost the project's pilot vegetable garden initiative. The funding will be used to create a permaculture model garden at the project centre.

Emulate a standard garden

"The main aim is to create a standard garden that can be used for the training of the community members so that they can emulate it at their home gardens," says Roland Ngoh, project leader at Child Aid Doornkop. "The community will be able to learn from the experiences of the project in gardening and permaculture."

Permaculture is a sustainable and environmentally friendly way of farming. This can allow farmers to produce more food using fewer resources. Permaculture and agro-ecology improve soil fertility, adapt to climate change, and reduce farming input costs.

Twenty four project staff and community members will be trained in permaculture and agro-ecology. The project staff will then be able to train the 12,000 families in the area in permaculture. The primary vegetables will be spinach, tomatoes and green pepper which are the most preferred and staple vegetables in the community.