Editor: Rob SmallProducer: Lina TolvaisaitePhoto’s: Rob Small, Lina Tolvaisaite, Nosisa Merile,

Amy Rosenthal, Bridget ImpeyReports: Lina Tolvaisaite, Rob SmallDesign/print: ONEWORD design

Team News:

Notice Board:

Thank you to all our friends!The diversity and spread of ABALIMI’s friends is the result of 15years of relationship building. This list covers the reporting periodof October 05 – March 06.

NOTE: if there is anyone who should be mentioned, or anyonewho no longer wishes to be mentioned, we will make amends.We are deeply grateful for your partnership and commitment.Every cent is efficiently utilised to deliver results. Audited financialstatements are available on request.

Roll of Honour

This Newsletter is designed and printed with the kind support of:

Our “Extra Mile” stop-order friendsThough few, your impact is great. We feel you should be honoured,but have taken precaution to exclude your initials to protect yourprivacy.

Abalimi team: (second row from left) Ruby Sigila – Assistant to theManagement Team, Rob Small – Resource Mobilisation Manager,Christina Kaba – Operations Manager, Roland Welte – FinancialManager, Nyaniso Matwa – Assistant Field Support Worker, BridgetImpey – Organic Special Advisor; (first row from left) NolubabaloMzamo – Bookkeeper, Lovinia Mangcotywa – Field Support Worker,Vatiswa Dunjana – Urban Agriculture Fieldworker, Liziwe Stofile –Urban Agriculture Fieldworker, Nosisa Merile – Urban GreeningFieldworker, (sitting) Mandy Qamata – Administrator.

Staff Training:Abalimi continues to support its staff in developingtheir skills and capacities:

Nolubabalo Mzamo (Bookkeeper) attended a Report Writing Course.

Mandy Qamata, Liziwe Stofile, Vatiswa Dunjana and Bridget Impeyattended a workshop on Quality Control Training at ElsenburgCollege, Stellenbosch, which was conducted by HIVOS.

Fieldworkers continue attending the Agriplanner Training courseand will become accredited trainers in due course.

Special Mentions – VolunteersJulia Troch – SMS Marketingpilot project

Julia arrived from Germany inNovember with a marketingdegree and offered her servicesto set up a SMS cell phonemarketing system. The systemallows urban agriculture groupswith excess organic vegetables toSMS through to a central pointthe quantit ies of vegetablesavailable. The produce can then becollected efficiently and sold onto potential buyers, thus saving

both time and money. Julia worked until the end of February collectinginformation from groups and researching various marketing outlets.She also volunteered for some backbreaking gardening work atFezeka in Guguletu. With her sunny disposition and energeticapproach Julia is very much missed.

Christoph Becher –Architectural measurements

Cristoph Becher, a Germanstudent of architecture at theUniversity of Aachen, assistedAbalimi voluntarily in Januaryand February. He measured upthe Greenhouse and Pack Shedpremises and created technicaldrawings , thus sav ing usthousands of Rands. Thank you,Cristoph!

Abrahams Addington AshtonBeen CCA Environment (Pty) LtdCrida Dawkins EuvrardFife GarberGraves Green Hammer Hodgetts

Legum Mouton Mudie Muller Richardson Robinson Smythe Technical FinishesTimms Tullie Van Essen WilsonWorthington Smith

A list of wishes from the Fieldworkers and office staff:Bookshelves – for our new offices in PhilippiBig enamel pots – to cook our own organic meals at the training

coursesCarpet – for the Nyanga Garden CentreVacuum Cleaner – for our new offices in PhilippiFan – to keep cool in the hot monthsFridge – for the Nyanga Garden CentreWeed eater – to keep the garden centre tidy and trimmedChairs – for courses in Khayelitsha and Nyanga Garden

Centre

Change of address? Should your addresses / contact detailschange, please notify our admin office so we can rectify our mailing list.

Cheques should be made out to ABALIMI BEZEKHAYAotherwise they are not bankable.

Volunteer Plant Growers Group: Clare Lindner continuesto coordinate volunteers who wish to donate plants. Please rememberwe only accept indigenous and non-invasive plants. Contact Clareat (021) 671 93 23.

Volunteers are welcome!We welcome all volunteers – for example, there are plenty ofcommunity gardens who need extra hands on a regular basis to helpwith weeding and other laborious tasks! In particular, we seek self-motivated volunteers who are looking to commit for longer periods. 

At the moment, we especially seek the following skills:Librarian – to assist us with restructuring our resource library.Social impact researcher – to articulate and document the most powerful results of our work.Drip irrigation specialist – to finalise our field tests and set up a special drip-irrigation training and deployment project.Legal eagles who like to give ongoing pro-bono support (as if it was paid for) to highly effective social profit agencies.Highly skilled black professionals who love gardening and nature andwho would love to sit on our Governing Board.

We would dearly like to thank the following peoplefor their wonderful donations-in-kind

The Volunteer Plant Growers Group organised by Clare Lindnerfor 50 trees which were used in our urban greening projects.

Linzi for 45 cement rings which were distributed to our urbanagriculture projects.

Maureen Lawrence for a stove, which was installed in KhayelitschaGarden Centre and will be used to prepare food for workshopsand training courses.

Mrs Feinhaver for 30 slabs that are very useful for the KhayelitschaGarden Centre.

Rosarium Nursery for 100 trays of seedlings which were used inour urban agriculture projects.

Ackerman Pick’n Pay FoundationAustralian High CommissionCape Vege ter i an Soc i e t yCity of Cape Town LA21Dangwen TrustDepartment of Water Affairs andForestryErica Glyn-JonesEskomFamsaFeedback Food RedistributionFriends Individual (81)Friends Internat ional (15)Friends Stop Orders (27)Garden Africa (SEED)Green Trust - WWF SAJDI FoundationJen and Hym Rab inowitzJewish National Fund (SEED)

KPMGLisa and Max HopflMiriam and Michael GigliottiMisereorN DA v i a W C - N AC O S AConsortiumNedbankOeser N/O FundOld MutualSilwood Book ClubSmith M&S Charitable Trust(SEED)St Ola’s TrustSynchron ic i ty Foundat ionThatu (Kerr SE ) ( SEED)The Cold ChainTrackerUS Aid (SEED)

Co-ordinating Office Physical Address:C/o The Business Place Philippi

Cwango Cresent, (Cnr New Eisleben Rd and Lansdowne Rd,behind Shoprite Centre)Philippi, 7785

NEW tel / fax: 021 371 1653Postal Address: PO Box 44 Observatory, 7935

Khayelitsha Garden Centre tel / fax: 021 361 3497Nyanga Garden Centre tel / fax: 021 386 3777

email: info@abalimi.org.za web: www.abalimi.org.za

NEWSLETTER TO OUR FRIENDS

NO 33OCT 2005 - MARCH 2006 015-337 NPO W/Cape suppliers Database No: ABAL001TRW

Dear Friends, in this newsletter to you we would like to present more extensive articles – stories with deeper insights into the lives, thoughts andproblems of the community-based projects we serve, and the people who run them. Also, we would like to honour the Abalimi Fieldworkers – the“hands of Abalimi”, by telling their stories to you. In all of this we see a positive future – a future that is being built by goodwill, collaboration andcourageous commitment, no matter what the odds. This is our gift to you. We hope that you will feel renewed, and welcome as a trusted member of“team Abalimi”. Only together can we continue to do what many consider impossible, small step by small step – transform poverty into prosperity,desert into sustainable green. Thank you for everything you do, with sincere regards, Rob Small – Resource Mobilisation Leader.

URBAN GREENING PROGRAM

AGORA FLATS GREENING PROJECT, Kuyasa, Khayelitsha

Agora Flats greening project, which united 5 women from a variety of African origins to green theirsurroundings, was presented in our last issue under the name of Khanyo project. Abalimi’s NosisaMerile rejoices that during one of her last follow-up visits she found that the project had impactedits members and the whole neighbourhood more than anticipated.

All of the five women, who attended her horticultural training in 2004, also became interested invegetable growing and lately participated in Abalimi’s agricultural training. Supported by Abalimi’sFieldworker Liziwe Stofile they have just started preparation work for a community garden atBulumko School. This takes up most oftheir time and keeps the formerlyunemployed women occupied. They areenthusiastic about their new idea, whichwas inspired by the successful greeningof Khanyo streets. The group also wishesto turn a big empty abandoned area inthe middle of the settlement into a greencommunity park and is currentlywrestling with the funding question.

Sophie Matanjana, the initiator of thegreening in Khanyo, tells that even thoughfunding remains unsolved, the vision ofthe women to improve their environmentis becoming true as more and moreneighbours, inspired by the results oftheir project, start their own indigenousgardens. We found her neighbourVusumzi Majebe working in his newbeautifully designed garden together withhis grandson Mvuseni. The pensioner ispassionate about his new activity as wellas his neighbour, Matthews Bhartman,who was enjoying the recently plantedgreen lawn in front of his house.

Mrs Matanjana chuckles when she revealsthat the community plots, which the womengreened, have also become an attractionfor the local people, who often come herewith their visitors in order to takephotographs.

Agora Flats project members during the preparation work on one of the squares (before) and Sophie Matanjana in the same square (after)

The Agora Flats project inspired Vusumzi Majebe, aneighbour, to green his home environment

NOSISA MERILE, Urban GreeningFieldworker, all areas. “Greening changes lives!”

Nosisa Merile has been with Abalimi since 1999,when she joined the organisation as a volunteerafter finishing her 4-year horticulture studiesin South African Technical College. Nosisabecame a Fieldworker in 2000 and hascontributed to the activities of the organisationnot only with her profound theoreticalknowledge but also practical know-how, whichshe gained during her one-year internship inKirstenbosch National Botanical Garden.

Nosisa co-launched Abalimi’s horticulturaltraining course and has become the principleFieldworker of its greening programme. Shealso successfully implemented a cost-saving ideato grow many of Abalimi’s own plants fromseeds, seedlings and plant divisions involvingtrainees from the horticultural course. The plantstock grown by the trainees then supplementsthe general Abalimi nursery stock, creating amore sustainable re-stocking cycle for thegreening programme.

Nosisa has always enjoyed being in nature and working with plants. She is very satisfied that inAbalimi she is given the opportunity to influence many people’s lives by doing the job she loves.“People in townships used to think that greening is only for rich people, but I try to change theirminds, saying that green environment is for everyone. Eventually I see the changes in people’s minds,they tend to care more about their environment outside their homes”.

The years of work with the local township people, in which Nosisa observed many social problems,led to a new idea that she would like to implement in the future. Nosisa noticed that more andmore women from different African origins, Zimbabwean, Nigerian, Angolan and others, are comingto live in Cape Town, but are mostly isolated from society due to the inability to speak the locallanguage and general distrust and suspiciousness between them and the local women. Nosisa isaiming to set up greening projects, which encourage South African women to work with thenewcomers in order to ease their integration. She is sure that the South Africans would also greatlybenefit from the projects by exchanging experiences on different topics as well as fighting theirgroundless stereotypes and fears.

DONATION CERTIFICATEPLANT A TREE OR A

GARDEN IN THE TOWNSHIPS!Surprise your friends or relatives

with a unique present!

We can issue this certificate for any occasion,e. g. to celebrate a birthday, anniversary orin memory of a dear one. We can send it to

you or a person you nominate with theinscription of your choice.

See the “Join as a Friend orDonate to Abalimi” form enclosed.

Hym Rabinowitz, leading South African potter and anti-apartheidactivist, in his studio

Letter of appreciation to all at Abalimi

Hym and Jen Rabinowitz hold an open day every year and salesof coffee, tea and cakes come to Abalimi. This has amounted tomany thousands over the years. Hym and Jen also promote thework of Abalimi, and here is what they say of us…

“To use a very well used cliché – the work that Abalimi does isvery close to our hearts; and to quote another cliché, those heartsbleed with every destructive fire in the Cape and further afield.

And so, the restorative work, constructive and far reaching, thatAbalimi so actively pursues, we see as absolutely vital to healthand well being of our environment and society.

We feel strongly that much praise is due to them for theiroutstanding contribution to our community. Our contact withAbalimi, I think, came through Simon Egert, who in 1993 hadapproached Abalimi with the preposition to establish a specialTree Planting campaign in the townships. This made one awarehow necessary it was to support Abalimi’s practical ideal, whichis now flourishing through the dedication and direction of all itspersonal.

We wish them well in all their future endeavours.”

Jen and Hym Rabinowitz

Results of our newsletterand website survey

In our newsletter No 31 we included a short questionnaireconcerning the contents and the design of our newsletter andwebsite. Thank you very much, all of the dozens of respondents,for giving us your feedback, we have carefully examined all of youranswers and comments!

We are very glad about the positive results from the survey, whichreward our efforts to constantly improve our public involvement.The fact that all of the respondents were satisfied with content ofthe Abalimi Newsletters ensures us that we provide you withrelevant information on our activities. What is more, 95% ofrespondents told us that they liked the newsletter design and wouldnot suggest any changes.

We are also happy, that your answers indicate a good quality of ourwebsite: all of you, who had an opportunity to use or check it,found that it provided relevant information and had a nice design.

The survey showed that most of you came to know Abalimi byword of mouth or the newsletter itself. This encourages us to keepon our hard work on this important publicity tool and to heartilythank all of you, who promote the work of Abalimi in your networks.

Christoph during his work inthe Greenhouse

Julia interviewing potential SMSmarketing clients at MatthewGoniwe Clinic in Khayelitsha

ABALIMI

There are 300 children with development disorderproblems aged between 6 and 18 attending KhayelitshaSpecial School. The school’s greening project wasimplemented within the Bauwagen (literally translatedas “build-wagon”) partnership between Abalimi/ SEEDand the Stadtoasen (“City Oases”) NGO of the Cityof Aachen in Germany, which was presented in ournewsletter No 31.

Abalimi’s Nosisa Merile and SEED’s Mzukisi Zele incooperation with two German volunteers soonturned the sandy surroundings of Khayelitsha SpecialSchool into a green oasis. First, an international teamconducted a workshop to find out the needs andwishes of the children and the teachers. Based onthat, they started a food garden, covered the groundwith lawn and indigenous plants, built benches andrepaired the playgrounds. Several high beds werebuilt next to the vegetable patch for the learners inwheelchairs to be able to work in as well.

Nosisa tells that the greening project improves theenvironment, provides vegetables for the school’ssoup kitchen and even serves educational purposes.“Children like to work practically in the gardenbecause they have difficulties concentrating in aclassroom. Working with vegetables and other plantsincreases their creativity, so teachers are happy and

enthusiastic about the green surrounding”. She addsthat some children got so interested in agriculturaland horticultural activities that they started gardensback home and are considering the opportunity ofgetting more involved in gardening in the future.Nosisa regrets that she does not have enoughcapacities to comply with the teacher’s request togive lessons about gardening. SEED, however, hasalready invited the interested teachers to attendtheir trainings about environmental education (seeSEED newsletter insert).

Sindiswa Matshona is step-by-step implementingher dream to motivate Khayelitsha residents toimprove their environment through greening andone of the means she uses for this purpose isher own flourishing front yard garden. Originallycoming from Transkei with years of farmingexperience Sindiswa kept on working with plantsin different commercial nurseries and is currentlyemployed as a sales expert in DeLaRey nursery.She laughs when she describes her passion forplants, “When I moved here I used to grab nicewild plants and put them next to my house,because I missed the nature so much in the sandytownship”.

Abalimi’s Nosisa Merile was surprised by anunusual green oasis in front of Sindiswa’s homeat the time she began the first greening activitiesin this area and invited her to help Abalimi toencourage people to follow her example. Sindiswagladly accepted Abalimi’s offer as it correspondedto her own vision and provided her withnecessary resources to approach and motivatethe residents, whereas Abalimi benefited fromher c lose contac t to the commun i ty,

communication skills and profound gardeningknowledge. Despite her busy schedule Sindiswasupported Abalimi for 6 months spreadingg reen i n g i d e a s doo r- t o - door i n h e rneighbourhood, training the interested, doingdemonstrations as well as follow-up consulting.

However, she feels that it is only the beginningof this challenging work, “I see that many peoplestill don’t understand the purpose of plants, sothey break trees and pull flowers out. I want toexplain to them the purpose of gardening andnice environment.” In order to do this moreeffectively she would like to open a communitygarden centre with a nursery where she wouldtrain and employ several local people to growand to sell indigenous plants to the communityat reasonable prices. In this way more residentswould afford gardening, it would be easier topropagate greening ideas and transfer the know-how to all the interested.

Abalimi appreciates its cooperation with Sindiswavery much and wishes her all the best in realisingher undertaking.

The food garden

KHAYELITSHA SPECIAL SCHOOL GREENING PROJECT, Khayelitsha

URBAN AGRICULTURE PROGRAMVATISWA DUNJANA, Urban Agriculture Fieldworker,Nyanga, Guguletu, Philippi areas.“Community building through self empowerment!”Vatiswa Dunjana came to Abalimi as a volunteer in Feb 2003 withlots of gardening skills and passion obtained through her voluntarygardening activities in Quaker Peace Centre. Very successful applicationof her previous experiences to Abalimi’s projects led to heremployment as a Fieldworker in just 4 months. Vatiswa counts thatsince then she has already trained about 370 people: 250 individualsand community project members and 4 organizational andgovernmental groups each of about 30 participants. She has supportedvarious types of gardens: backyard, community and institutional ones,and is currently busy with 17 micro farming projects. She is veryproud of the Fezeka and Masithandane community gardens inGuguletu, which won the “Female Farmer of the Year” award as thebest gardens in the Western Cape Province in the year 2005 and2006.

Vatiswa enjoys her position very much as it involves many diverseduties such as assessing the land for the future projects, implementationand follow-up of gardens, planning the project work, record keeping,training and demonstrations for the project members as well ascaring for the sustainability of the implemented gardens by teachingthem techniques to make their own compost, manure and seedlings.

“Abalimi brings to me a new life”, tells Vatiswa when she describesthe benefits provided by the organisation. She sees her personaldevelopment as one of the biggest achievements. Encouraged byAbalimi she gained many new skills through a variety of courses suchas the “Agriplanner”, record keeping, report writing, fundraising,project and cooperative management and registration, organiccertification, business plan writing etc. Currently Vatiswa is ambitiousabout getting a driver’s license, which would increase her mobilityand access to the projects, situated in different townships.

She is also very passionate about a new interesting challenge broughtto her by Abalimi, which empowers her to address herself to oneof the major community problems, HIV/AIDS. Recently the organisationencouraged her to attend an HIV/AIDS course in order to becomea certified trainer to raise people’s awareness about this hot issue.Vatiswa is very glad that it is much easier to access the residentsthrough the networks she made while working with Abalimi andtherefore she can perfectly supplement her current schedule withthis challenging activity: she has already trained 69 people aboutHIV/AIDS, most of them members of her gardening projects. In orderto incorporate both of her duties even more, Vatiswa plans to attend

courses on HIV/AIDS nutrition, in which she would especially liketo learn how to prepare and combine vegetables to fight the life-threatening illness.

Vatiswa adds “Abalimi helps me to be somebody in my family andcommunity, to be respected. It brings me a secure, satisfying life”.Her new activities helped her to contradict a community stereotypeof a single mother. Through the new experiences and useful contactsin the community as well as governmental institutions she has becomewell known and authoritative. Vatiswa tells that she is particularlysatisfied that the gained status and skills empower her to addressand solve community problems more effectively.

MASIBANBANE COMMUNITY GARDENat Siyazaka Primary School, PhilippiThe members of Masibanbane community garden were teamed upby an ex Abalimi Fieldworker Maureen Onceya (who now works forthe Department of Agriculture). Maureen noticed their beautifulhome gardens and encouraged the residents to join their forces andexperiences for the benefit of the whole community in 1999. Theprincipal of the Siyazaka primary school was convinced by thisinitiative and offered the group a big plot, which they have turnedinto a very nice flourishing community garden. The efforts of 6project members, 5 of them women, were rewarded by theDepartment of Agriculture, which has already provided them withsupport for three years. As a part of it the team has recently got avery needful water tank and tunnels, used to protect the plants.

Maggie Bakeni, who participated in the project from the very beginning,tells “a big garden not only provides our families with food, as thehome gardens did, but also with income. I use that to pay my electricitybills. We also donate vegetables to poor children from the schooland sell them to teachers and community members”. Evelina Mzilikazi,another project member, who has been involved in sports most ofher life and is now a part of old age athletic group, is especiallysatisfied that in addition to the mentioned benefits, gardening letsher exercise in fresh air and keep in shape. The energy and goodmood, which she gains outdoors, are helpful for her second project– making traditional Amakhuko art work.

Abalimi’s Fieldworker Vatiswa Dunjana, who has supported thegardeners since 2003, tells that the garden was expanded as theproject members learned about different herbs and started tocultivate them. She hopes that the group will get funding to realizetheir plan to establish a soup kitchen, which would be a great helpfor the community.

MASITHANDANE COMMUNITY GARDEN, GuguletuMasithandane garden project (its Xhosa name means let’s love eachother) was started in 2002 in Guguletu in the dumping place for oldcars by Christina Madalana and her husband Herban Madala. Theydecided to transform the dumping ground where violenceoften took place into a safe, clean and green community area, whichwould also help to support its poor members with fresh vegetables.For this purpose a project team of their 6 neighbours and 8unemployed people from nearby squatter camps was formed.

In 2003 the Department of Agriculture helped the project to establishthe first contact to Abalimi. Abalimi’s Fieldworker, Vatiswa Dunjana,trained the project members, all with no previous farming experience,how to produce fresh vegetables. Since then Abalimi has also supportedthe project with various gardening resources. The success of thislong-term cooperation and the project members’ effort was soonacknowledged as the Masithandane garden won the “Female Farmerof the Year 2005” award in the category “Top producer for HouseholdUse” in the whole Western Cape province, beating 14 otherparticipants.

The income and vegetables provided by the project is a great helpfor the families of its 9 current members, all unemployed or pensionerwomen. They are also happy that through gardening they gaineduseful farming skills, improved their nutrition and physical health.The women emphasise the importance of the project to their mentalhealth as well: most of the family problems are shared and discussedwhile working in the garden, which is often a place to relax fromnoise and routine at home. Christina admits that the project hashelped the women to develop very close relationships which ensurethe necessary support in critical life situations.

She is proud that the constantly growing garden not only directlysupports the families of the project members but also provides manyadvantages to the whole community. First of all, Masithandane donatesthe surplus of organic vegetables to a local old aged home, HIV/AIDS support group, several crèches, as well as to the poor fromthe squatter camps. What is more, the project contributes tocommunity building as the people get to know each other whilecoming to buy vegetables or asking for advice about gardening. TheMasithandane women are very happy to transfer their gardeningknow-how and to provide seedlings to all those who are interested.Moreover, the group makes efforts to reduce poverty in the communityby hiring unemployed squatters whenever the women need help.

In order to provide even more support to their needy communitythe project members plan to establish a soup kitchen. The group hasjust started the application process to the Department of SocialServices in order to get the necessary funds.

Vatiswa Dunjana consulting Masithandane Community Garden members

The pupils of Khayelitsha special school enjoy the changes in their school yard

MRS SINDISWA MATSHONA’s HOME GARDEN, Khayelitsha

Mrs Matshona in her flourishing garden, which looked exactly the same as the yard of the neighbouringhouse when she moved in

Maggie Bakeni, Happines Mgweba, Evelina Mzilikazi and Abalimi’sFieldworker Vatiswa Dunjana are glad to harvest big beautiful broccoli

Masithandane gardeners and their helpers are proud of the “FemaleFarmer of the Year 2005” award

LIZIWE STOFILE, Urban Agriculture Fieldworker, Khayelitsha.“Breaking the stereotypes!”

Liziwe Stofile has been with Abalimi since2001. She was attracted to the organisationby her curiosity:“I did not expect that thesand of the townships could be turned intoa flourishing garden which yields nice bigcabbages, onions, potatoes and othervegetables”. Her successful contribution tothe development of Siyazama, one ofAbalimi’s biggest community gardens,encouraged Liziwe to deepen her farmingknow-how and get involved in gardeningfull-time. After more than 2 years of helpingAbalimi in busy seasons and working as atrainee with experienced staff members,Liziwe has developed into her currentposition of Fieldworker.

Liziwe is very happy with her job. After beingunemployed for a long time she enjoys anopportunity to develop her personality. Shenames dif ferent gardening trainings,communication and computer courses,driving lessons and various other workshopswhich were provided by Abalimi and helpedher to develop many new skills andcapacities. “It is also very important to methat I got a chance to help others without

having much money, it makes me feel better!” she says. She helps mostly underprivileged people tostart new activities by leading the gardening training as well as supporting and following up theestablishment of their home or community gardens. Liziwe also provides fresh vegetables and usefulfarming advice for her big family, friends and neighbours.

Liziwe is especially proud that Abalimi empowered her to break the stereotypes in her community.“People here used to think of gardening as a waste of time, as an occupation for old or uneducatedpeople in rural areas, so they saw no employment possibilities here and were also depreciating myinvolvement”, she tells. She remembers that even her family was ashamed of her farming activities.

However, her example of becoming a successful and independent community leader, who is makingmany useful contacts and improving many other lives made the local people change their opinions.More and more of them reveal that gardening offers good chances for their own businesses. Evenher sister, who was especially skeptical, expressed interest to join one of the community gardengroups. Liziwe is glad that urban gardening has been recently recognized by the local Governmentand is getting officially supported, thus allowing many more residents to become occupied in thisinteresting field.

UMZOMHLE EDUCARE CENTRE GARDEN,Khayelitsha

55 children from the Umzomhle crèche and the families of itsstaff are glad about the fresh vegetables provided by their gardenevery day. Starting from 2003 Abalimi’s Fieldworker Liziwe Stofilehelped the project members to remove their garden from a smallbackyard to the bigger area in front of the crèche and trainedthem to manage it professionally. Since then Abalimi has alsosupported Umzomhle with follow-up consulting, seeds, seedlingsand other necessary resources. Most recently Abalimi providedthe educare with a drip irrigation system, which helps to savewater by keeping up a direct supply to the plants.

Nosiphiwo Menqe (pictured in the middle), one of the 6 crècheemployees caring for the garden, adds that donating and sellingvegetables to the community members, especially to theunemployed and the sick ones, has become a very important taskfor the gardeners as well. This situation and an increasing numberof children attending the educare has led to a fast growing demandfor vegetables. In order to fulfill these needs the project membersplan to enlarge and redesign the farming area. The evident benefitsthat the garden provides to the community helped the projectto receive the necessary permission easily. The staff membersnow hope that the application for the required funds from theDepartment of Agriculture will also succeed and they will be ableto expand and develop their beloved garden soon.

ESAM ESAKO COMMUNITY GARDEN AT IMPENDULU SCHOOL, Khayelitsha

Esam Esako (“mine and yours”) community garden has been supported by Abalimi with training andresources for more than 3 years and currently unites 11 members. The garden production is notonly used for the families and neighbours of the members but is also donated to the nearby HIVclinic and poor children of the Impendulu School.

Liziwe Stofile, Abalimi’s Fieldworker supporting the garden, is very pleasantly surprised by theenthusiasm and activity of the gardeners. In addition to the fact that each of the members cultivatean own home garden, by using Abalimi’s networks the group also joined several other projects, whichkeep the former unemployed occupied full time. For example, in association to a nearby poultryproject the team members started small home henhouses to raise chickens for food. They alsocontribute to the a community henhouse, which provides low priced poultry for the residents.

The second project in which the members got involved is the herbal garden project, organized bythe Women for Peace Centre. Within it various herbs are grown in a big community plot and homegardens in order to produce medicine and spices. In the Centre the women of Esam Esako learnedto make different crafts: wine glasses from recycled cider bottles, bead work, sewing and baking.

Ntomboxolo Elisabeth Skey, one of the main organizers of the Esam Esako community garden, addsthat Abalimi has served the project members as a stepping stone for even more activities. Recentlythe City of Cape Town got familiarized with their beautiful food garden and offered the team toapply their gardening skills to develop a big community park in the suburb of Makaza. The park willnot only serve for leisure but also provide the residents with many useful services. One of them isa community vegetable garden, for which the Esam Esako team is now responsible. The garden shouldbe used not only for vegetable sales but also for transferring farming knowledge and demonstratingthe gardening process for all those interested. Ntomboxolo tells that the team is very enthusiastic

about this new project and hasalready started the necessarypreparation work.

Zuziwe Lillian Rotho, anothermember o f Esam Esako,mentions that the team is alsohappy to exchange the irexper i ence s w i th o thergardeners in the VukunzezeleUrban Farmers Association,which was established withAbalimi’s support. United forceshelp the projects to attractfunding and stick up for othercommon interests.

Mr Gcakasi, Mrs Skey and MrsRotho in Esam Esako communitygarden with the pupils fromImpendulu School

Members of Thanduxolo Support Group with examples of theirdiverse talents

LET OUR TRAINED ORGANIC GARDENERS TURNYOUR YARD INTO A HEALTHY FOOD PANTRY!A story of Joyce Nkwali and Hugh TyrellSince summer 2005 Hugh Tyrell, a professional copywriter and editor,father of two children, has enjoyed picking fresh organic vegetablesin his own backyard in Canal Walk, Cape Town. After getting acquaintedwith the activities of Abalimi, he approached the organisation askingfor qualified support to start and maintain his own vegetable garden.

Joyce Nkwali, a leader of Abalimi’s supported Siyazama CommunityGarden, who was trained by Abalimi and has been involved in organicgardening for 6 years, helped Hugh to realise his undertaking. She setup the plots of spinach, peas, carrots, lettuce and onions, which thefamily harvests by themselves according to their needs. ThereafterJoyce has maintained the organic garden once per week and hasoccasionally undertaken such gardening tasks as pruning trees, mowingthe grass and cleaning the yard. Joyce is particularly satisfied that shecan apply her gardening skills to support a living of her family. TheR100 she earns per work day in Hugh’s garden is a great help to buyfood and clothes to her 4 children and an unemployed husband.

Hugh is also satisfied with their cooperation “It’s a wonderful idea!It’s great to have fresh organic vegetables and be sure of their quality;and at the same time provide employment for the underprivileged”.He wishes that more residents of Cape Town suburbs would followhis example. Joyce is very enthusiastic about it as well, “I and another11 women, who are members of Siyazama Community Garden, havethe capacity to cultivate more domestic gardens.” After makingexperience in Hugh’s garden she is sure that the women could alsoeasily undertake a domestic gardener’s position, which has traditionallybeen men’s occupation, “it’s not difficult, we can do that!”.

Abalimi is glad to contribute to the women’s empowerment as in allprobability Joyce was hired as the first female community gardener torun a domestic vegetable garden for a middle-income household inCape Town. Please contact us if you are interested to turn yourbackyard into a green organic garden as well!

THANDUXOLO SUPPORT GROUP GARDEN,Khayelitsha

The Group operates from Luvuyo Clinic in Khayelitsha where theyhave a small, but very productive vegetable garden, produce beautifulwoven bags made from recycled plastic bags, beadwork and crochetblankets. Recently the group of senior citizens took part in the GoldenGames at Bellville Stadium and come away with several athletics trophies.

Mr Ruga (pictured 2nd from left), the force behind the vegetablegarden, definitely has green fingers and has planted a hedge around thegarden with cuttings he struck himself. The garden always has a colourfuldisplay of flowering plants. After finishing for the day at Luvuyo ClinicMr Ruga piles everything into his wheel barrow and goes off to hissecond group garden project Esam Esako, for someone in their 70’s heputs a lot of younger people to shame.

The staff of the Umzomhle crèche and the Fieldworker Liziwe Stofile (second left) are glad about the new irrigation system provided by Abalimi

Joyce in Hugh’s garden.

Editor: Rob SmallProducer: Lina TolvaisaitePhoto’s: Rob Small, Lina Tolvaisaite, Nosisa Merile,

Amy Rosenthal, Bridget ImpeyReports: Lina Tolvaisaite, Rob SmallDesign/print: ONEWORD design

Team News:

Notice Board:

Thank you to all our friends!The diversity and spread of ABALIMI’s friends is the result of 15years of relationship building. This list covers the reporting periodof October 05 – March 06.

NOTE: if there is anyone who should be mentioned, or anyonewho no longer wishes to be mentioned, we will make amends.We are deeply grateful for your partnership and commitment.Every cent is efficiently utilised to deliver results. Audited financialstatements are available on request.

Roll of Honour

This Newsletter is designed and printed with the kind support of:

Our “Extra Mile” stop-order friendsThough few, your impact is great. We feel you should be honoured,but have taken precaution to exclude your initials to protect yourprivacy.

Abalimi team: (second row from left) Ruby Sigila – Assistant to theManagement Team, Rob Small – Resource Mobilisation Manager,Christina Kaba – Operations Manager, Roland Welte – FinancialManager, Nyaniso Matwa – Assistant Field Support Worker, BridgetImpey – Organic Special Advisor; (first row from left) NolubabaloMzamo – Bookkeeper, Lovinia Mangcotywa – Field Support Worker,Vatiswa Dunjana – Urban Agriculture Fieldworker, Liziwe Stofile –Urban Agriculture Fieldworker, Nosisa Merile – Urban GreeningFieldworker, (sitting) Mandy Qamata – Administrator.

Staff Training:Abalimi continues to support its staff in developingtheir skills and capacities:

Nolubabalo Mzamo (Bookkeeper) attended a Report Writing Course.

Mandy Qamata, Liziwe Stofile, Vatiswa Dunjana and Bridget Impeyattended a workshop on Quality Control Training at ElsenburgCollege, Stellenbosch, which was conducted by HIVOS.

Fieldworkers continue attending the Agriplanner Training courseand will become accredited trainers in due course.

Special Mentions – VolunteersJulia Troch – SMS Marketingpilot project

Julia arrived from Germany inNovember with a marketingdegree and offered her servicesto set up a SMS cell phonemarketing system. The systemallows urban agriculture groupswith excess organic vegetables toSMS through to a central pointthe quantit ies of vegetablesavailable. The produce can then becollected efficiently and sold onto potential buyers, thus saving

both time and money. Julia worked until the end of February collectinginformation from groups and researching various marketing outlets.She also volunteered for some backbreaking gardening work atFezeka in Guguletu. With her sunny disposition and energeticapproach Julia is very much missed.

Christoph Becher –Architectural measurements

Cristoph Becher, a Germanstudent of architecture at theUniversity of Aachen, assistedAbalimi voluntarily in Januaryand February. He measured upthe Greenhouse and Pack Shedpremises and created technicaldrawings , thus sav ing usthousands of Rands. Thank you,Cristoph!

Abrahams Addington AshtonBeen CCA Environment (Pty) LtdCrida Dawkins EuvrardFife GarberGraves Green Hammer Hodgetts

Legum Mouton Mudie Muller Richardson Robinson Smythe Technical FinishesTimms Tullie Van Essen WilsonWorthington Smith

A list of wishes from the Fieldworkers and office staff:Bookshelves – for our new offices in PhilippiBig enamel pots – to cook our own organic meals at the training

coursesCarpet – for the Nyanga Garden CentreVacuum Cleaner – for our new offices in PhilippiFan – to keep cool in the hot monthsFridge – for the Nyanga Garden CentreWeed eater – to keep the garden centre tidy and trimmedChairs – for courses in Khayelitsha and Nyanga Garden

Centre

Change of address? Should your addresses / contact detailschange, please notify our admin office so we can rectify our mailing list.

Cheques should be made out to ABALIMI BEZEKHAYAotherwise they are not bankable.

Volunteer Plant Growers Group: Clare Lindner continuesto coordinate volunteers who wish to donate plants. Please rememberwe only accept indigenous and non-invasive plants. Contact Clareat (021) 671 93 23.

Volunteers are welcome!We welcome all volunteers – for example, there are plenty ofcommunity gardens who need extra hands on a regular basis to helpwith weeding and other laborious tasks! In particular, we seek self-motivated volunteers who are looking to commit for longer periods. 

At the moment, we especially seek the following skills:Librarian – to assist us with restructuring our resource library.Social impact researcher – to articulate and document the most powerful results of our work.Drip irrigation specialist – to finalise our field tests and set up a special drip-irrigation training and deployment project.Legal eagles who like to give ongoing pro-bono support (as if it was paid for) to highly effective social profit agencies.Highly skilled black professionals who love gardening and nature andwho would love to sit on our Governing Board.

We would dearly like to thank the following peoplefor their wonderful donations-in-kind

The Volunteer Plant Growers Group organised by Clare Lindnerfor 50 trees which were used in our urban greening projects.

Linzi for 45 cement rings which were distributed to our urbanagriculture projects.

Maureen Lawrence for a stove, which was installed in KhayelitschaGarden Centre and will be used to prepare food for workshopsand training courses.

Mrs Feinhaver for 30 slabs that are very useful for the KhayelitschaGarden Centre.

Rosarium Nursery for 100 trays of seedlings which were used inour urban agriculture projects.

Ackerman Pick’n Pay FoundationAustralian High CommissionCape Vege ter i an Soc i e t yCity of Cape Town LA21Dangwen TrustDepartment of Water Affairs andForestryErica Glyn-JonesEskomFamsaFeedback Food RedistributionFriends Individual (81)Friends Internat ional (15)Friends Stop Orders (27)Garden Africa (SEED)Green Trust - WWF SAJDI FoundationJen and Hym Rab inowitzJewish National Fund (SEED)

KPMGLisa and Max HopflMiriam and Michael GigliottiMisereorN DA v i a W C - N AC O S AConsortiumNedbankOeser N/O FundOld MutualSilwood Book ClubSmith M&S Charitable Trust(SEED)St Ola’s TrustSynchron ic i ty Foundat ionThatu (Kerr SE ) ( SEED)The Cold ChainTrackerUS Aid (SEED)

Co-ordinating Office Physical Address:C/o The Business Place Philippi

Cwango Cresent, (Cnr New Eisleben Rd and Lansdowne Rd,behind Shoprite Centre)Philippi, 7785

NEW tel / fax: 021 371 1653Postal Address: PO Box 44 Observatory, 7935

Khayelitsha Garden Centre tel / fax: 021 361 3497Nyanga Garden Centre tel / fax: 021 386 3777

email: info@abalimi.org.za web: www.abalimi.org.za

NEWSLETTER TO OUR FRIENDS

NO 33OCT 2005 - MARCH 2006 015-337 NPO W/Cape suppliers Database No: ABAL001TRW

Dear Friends, in this newsletter to you we would like to present more extensive articles – stories with deeper insights into the lives, thoughts andproblems of the community-based projects we serve, and the people who run them. Also, we would like to honour the Abalimi Fieldworkers – the“hands of Abalimi”, by telling their stories to you. In all of this we see a positive future – a future that is being built by goodwill, collaboration andcourageous commitment, no matter what the odds. This is our gift to you. We hope that you will feel renewed, and welcome as a trusted member of“team Abalimi”. Only together can we continue to do what many consider impossible, small step by small step – transform poverty into prosperity,desert into sustainable green. Thank you for everything you do, with sincere regards, Rob Small – Resource Mobilisation Leader.

URBAN GREENING PROGRAM

AGORA FLATS GREENING PROJECT, Kuyasa, Khayelitsha

Agora Flats greening project, which united 5 women from a variety of African origins to green theirsurroundings, was presented in our last issue under the name of Khanyo project. Abalimi’s NosisaMerile rejoices that during one of her last follow-up visits she found that the project had impactedits members and the whole neighbourhood more than anticipated.

All of the five women, who attended her horticultural training in 2004, also became interested invegetable growing and lately participated in Abalimi’s agricultural training. Supported by Abalimi’sFieldworker Liziwe Stofile they have just started preparation work for a community garden atBulumko School. This takes up most oftheir time and keeps the formerlyunemployed women occupied. They areenthusiastic about their new idea, whichwas inspired by the successful greeningof Khanyo streets. The group also wishesto turn a big empty abandoned area inthe middle of the settlement into a greencommunity park and is currentlywrestling with the funding question.

Sophie Matanjana, the initiator of thegreening in Khanyo, tells that even thoughfunding remains unsolved, the vision ofthe women to improve their environmentis becoming true as more and moreneighbours, inspired by the results oftheir project, start their own indigenousgardens. We found her neighbourVusumzi Majebe working in his newbeautifully designed garden together withhis grandson Mvuseni. The pensioner ispassionate about his new activity as wellas his neighbour, Matthews Bhartman,who was enjoying the recently plantedgreen lawn in front of his house.

Mrs Matanjana chuckles when she revealsthat the community plots, which the womengreened, have also become an attractionfor the local people, who often come herewith their visitors in order to takephotographs.

Agora Flats project members during the preparation work on one of the squares (before) and Sophie Matanjana in the same square (after)

The Agora Flats project inspired Vusumzi Majebe, aneighbour, to green his home environment

NOSISA MERILE, Urban GreeningFieldworker, all areas. “Greening changes lives!”

Nosisa Merile has been with Abalimi since 1999,when she joined the organisation as a volunteerafter finishing her 4-year horticulture studiesin South African Technical College. Nosisabecame a Fieldworker in 2000 and hascontributed to the activities of the organisationnot only with her profound theoreticalknowledge but also practical know-how, whichshe gained during her one-year internship inKirstenbosch National Botanical Garden.

Nosisa co-launched Abalimi’s horticulturaltraining course and has become the principleFieldworker of its greening programme. Shealso successfully implemented a cost-saving ideato grow many of Abalimi’s own plants fromseeds, seedlings and plant divisions involvingtrainees from the horticultural course. The plantstock grown by the trainees then supplementsthe general Abalimi nursery stock, creating amore sustainable re-stocking cycle for thegreening programme.

Nosisa has always enjoyed being in nature and working with plants. She is very satisfied that inAbalimi she is given the opportunity to influence many people’s lives by doing the job she loves.“People in townships used to think that greening is only for rich people, but I try to change theirminds, saying that green environment is for everyone. Eventually I see the changes in people’s minds,they tend to care more about their environment outside their homes”.

The years of work with the local township people, in which Nosisa observed many social problems,led to a new idea that she would like to implement in the future. Nosisa noticed that more andmore women from different African origins, Zimbabwean, Nigerian, Angolan and others, are comingto live in Cape Town, but are mostly isolated from society due to the inability to speak the locallanguage and general distrust and suspiciousness between them and the local women. Nosisa isaiming to set up greening projects, which encourage South African women to work with thenewcomers in order to ease their integration. She is sure that the South Africans would also greatlybenefit from the projects by exchanging experiences on different topics as well as fighting theirgroundless stereotypes and fears.

DONATION CERTIFICATEPLANT A TREE OR A

GARDEN IN THE TOWNSHIPS!Surprise your friends or relatives

with a unique present!

We can issue this certificate for any occasion,e. g. to celebrate a birthday, anniversary orin memory of a dear one. We can send it to

you or a person you nominate with theinscription of your choice.

See the “Join as a Friend orDonate to Abalimi” form enclosed.

Hym Rabinowitz, leading South African potter and anti-apartheidactivist, in his studio

Letter of appreciation to all at Abalimi

Hym and Jen Rabinowitz hold an open day every year and salesof coffee, tea and cakes come to Abalimi. This has amounted tomany thousands over the years. Hym and Jen also promote thework of Abalimi, and here is what they say of us…

“To use a very well used cliché – the work that Abalimi does isvery close to our hearts; and to quote another cliché, those heartsbleed with every destructive fire in the Cape and further afield.

And so, the restorative work, constructive and far reaching, thatAbalimi so actively pursues, we see as absolutely vital to healthand well being of our environment and society.

We feel strongly that much praise is due to them for theiroutstanding contribution to our community. Our contact withAbalimi, I think, came through Simon Egert, who in 1993 hadapproached Abalimi with the preposition to establish a specialTree Planting campaign in the townships. This made one awarehow necessary it was to support Abalimi’s practical ideal, whichis now flourishing through the dedication and direction of all itspersonal.

We wish them well in all their future endeavours.”

Jen and Hym Rabinowitz

Results of our newsletterand website survey

In our newsletter No 31 we included a short questionnaireconcerning the contents and the design of our newsletter andwebsite. Thank you very much, all of the dozens of respondents,for giving us your feedback, we have carefully examined all of youranswers and comments!

We are very glad about the positive results from the survey, whichreward our efforts to constantly improve our public involvement.The fact that all of the respondents were satisfied with content ofthe Abalimi Newsletters ensures us that we provide you withrelevant information on our activities. What is more, 95% ofrespondents told us that they liked the newsletter design and wouldnot suggest any changes.

We are also happy, that your answers indicate a good quality of ourwebsite: all of you, who had an opportunity to use or check it,found that it provided relevant information and had a nice design.

The survey showed that most of you came to know Abalimi byword of mouth or the newsletter itself. This encourages us to keepon our hard work on this important publicity tool and to heartilythank all of you, who promote the work of Abalimi in your networks.

Christoph during his work inthe Greenhouse

Julia interviewing potential SMSmarketing clients at MatthewGoniwe Clinic in Khayelitsha

ABALIMI