Namibia

The other reason I was a bit delinquent in blogging last week was the morning after John left I flew to Windhoek, Namibia. This was my second trip to Namibia. John, Kevin Winge and I went there in November of 2006 to check out a food programme called Hope Initiatives. HI was started by Patricia Sola, a woman from Zimbabwe who had received her masters degree in psychology from the UK. Patricia had been working with children in refugee camps in Zambia and came to Windhoek to visit her sister who was very ill. When she saw what was happening or actually not happening, she decided to stay and be with her sister and do something for the children in the townships. Thus, Hope Initiatives began. We were impressed with the programme and with Patricia and her husband John. Open Arms belongs to a national organization based in Washington DC called ANSA. ANSA stands for Association of Nutrition Services Agencies. Open Arms was the first agency to sponsor a food programme in Africa. Two years ago ANSA developed its own International Programme based on the relationship between Open Arms and the JL Zwane Centre. Hope Initiatives was the first programme to be adopted by ANSA and a few of its member agencies. I was invited by Mary Reed, who developed the ANSA International Programme, to come and participate in learning about two different garden programmes. A traditional organic in-ground garden and a low-maintenance container box garden.

Hope Initiatives had recently completed their new building in a settlement area called Kilimanjaro. Previous to this they were serving meals out of a centre in a nearby settlement which was farther for the children to walk to. Their new property is big enough to have a soccer field and a garden area! The idea was to supplement the food programme with fresh fruit and vegetables that would be harvested from the gardens and also sold at the local markets to generate income for the programme.

The in-ground gardens were designed and implemented by Doug Gosling from Food for Thought (also a member agency of ANSA) in Sonoma County and Steve Bolinger from Development in Gardening (DIG), a non-profit working in Senegal and Uganda. (Note of interest: Laura and Jenna Bush visited Steve and DIG in Senegal) Jonathan Norton from Operation Lionheart from Johannesburg, South Africa, educated us on the container box garden which is called the Earthbox. The Earthbox is made up of a plastic box that has a lifetime warranty. The soil is shredded coconut, shelf life of 4 years, fertilizer, which you replace once a year and a cover that has a dark side for winter and a light side for summer. You can plant either seedlings or seeds in the container box which takes about 5 weeks to become full grown plants. The amazing thing about the Earthbox is you don't need land space, it takes less water and less time to have full grown fruits and vegetables. I think this is the perfect thing to introduce to the JL Zwane Centre due to the issue of land space and water. This would also be invaluable for individual families in the townships. Jonathan is working with schools and HIV/AIDS programs in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town. Their goal is to be everywhere on the African continent. This program has been available in the US for a while now. Jonathan's company bought the rights to market the product in Africa. The cost of the Earthbox is between R295 and R395 (about $30 to $40) depending on quantity. I now know what my next fund raising project will be!

I digress, back to the gardens. The idea for Hope Initiatives was to incorporate both types of gardens to be able to enhance the feeding programme and to use the gardens as an educational programme for the community.

The land is extremely rocky and it took many hands to clear the garden and dig the patches for preparation of the garden. But in one week there were 14 in-ground plots and enough room for 122 Earthboxes that will be shipped in two weeks to Kilimanjaro. I must say, it was an incredible experience for me to actually be a part of a hands-on project like this. As you can see from the pictures, a lot was accomplished in one week and the smiles on the faces of all involved show how proud they are of all the hard work they did to bring their community together.

Picture #1: View from the garden area of the new Hope Initiatives building.
Picture #2: Patricia and John, can you guess what well known painting they are trying to replicate?
Picture #3: The children enjoying their meal.
Picture #4: The organic garden space.
Picture #5: Jonathan explaining how to create the Earthbox.

Bye for now...

Monkeybiz and Siyaya

Once again I am behind in blogging. John was here for almost two weeks and just left. We had a great time together, did many things even though I went to work everyday. He has the routine down now so I don't feel guilty about leaving him, but remember it is Cape Town, so don't feel that sorry for him. It was his last visit for my six month stay, I have one month left to go and I will be home. It will be a very bittersweet day for me!

Many of you have received gifts from me over the years of colorful beaded artwork from a non-profit here in Cape Town called Monkeybiz. Monkeybiz was created in 2000 by Barbara Jackson, Shirley Fintz and Mathaps Ngaka. Monkeybiz is an income generating program that supplies glass beads to 450 women living in the township of Khayelitsha, about 40 minutes outside Cape Town. Many of these women are infected or affected by HIV/AIDS. These women are able to work from their homes and are now able to take care of their children and avoid the high cost of transport to the city each day to find work. Once a month the women bring their creations to the home of Mathaps' mother, who has trained most of these women to bead, for market day.

The last market day was February 18th and Monkeybiz and the JL Zwane Centre collaborated with Siyaya to have a market day celebration. The market runs from 9:00 AM until 12:00 PM. Siyaya was there to perform while the women stood in line, well, I should say danced in line! The celebration of the women was a wonderful event. Siyaya kept them entertained and dancing for over an hour. We were also fortunate to have a group from Minneapolis come to the celebration. Arm in Arm in Africa are funders to the JL Zwane Centre, I believe this was their 10th trip to Cape Town and they are frequent visitors to Monkeybiz!

Open Arms has been promoting Monkeybiz products for the last 4 years selling them at their annual World AIDS Day event. All the proceeds from the sale of Monkeybiz products go back to the programs that Open Arms supports in South Africa. Open Arms supports a soup kitchen every market day which provides a meal for the women and their children, this day there was soup, sandwiches and fruit.

This was Monkeybiz's first market day after the December/January holiday shutdown. Many of the beaders go back to the rural areas to be with their families so the day was a reunion for many of them. The day marked the beginning of a new year and a new friendship between the JL Zwane Centre and Monkeybiz.

I want to introduce you to the Monkeybiz family. In the first photo: front row: Joan, sales and administrative assistant, Elizabeth, bookkeeper, Barbara, co-director and founder, Mathaps, co-director and founder. Back row: Zaki and Siya, both ordering and packing assistants.

The second photo is of Siyaya performing. Third photo is of the children and adults enjoying the music of Siyaya. Forth picture is of Mathaps doing quality control on the beaded artwork. Every women has a bank account and once market day is completed the money is put into their accounts so they don't have the stress of having to go to the bank or to be a victim of theft walking home with money in their pockets after market day. Fifth photo is of the beaders in line to receive their meal from the soup kitchen that Open Arms supports through the generous donations made by you!

I hope you enjoyed meeting the Monkeybiz family!

Bye for now...