Diocese of Umzimvubu, South Africa
Sustainable Agriculture and
Environmental Education Programme
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Produce
from the Umzimvubu garden project |
Diocese
of Umzimvubu |
The Umzimvubu region of the Eastern Cape of South Africa, in the northern half of the former apartheid 'homeland' of Transkei, is entirely rural. It is one of the most beautiful but also one of the most environmentally degraded areas of South Africa. Hundreds of little homesteads can be seen scattered over the rolling green hills. But deep erosion gullies and muddy rivers indicate the environmental problems facing this fragile land. Each year, the pressure on the land makes it a little more sterile, especially when unemployment in the urban areas forces people back to their rural roots.
The majority of the people in this region are poor. Many able bodied and skilled adults have left the region for better jobs, leaving the old, young, disabled and jobless who struggle to make a living on the often denuded landscape.
In the late 1980s, the Development Committee of the Diocese of Umzimvubu identified the need for skills training to help people to support themselves. In the mid-1990s, Bob Thelin, an agricultural missionary, with his wife Nelda, joined with Father Nceba Gabula, a development worker, to support small groups of people who wished to start community vegetable gardens. These people were usually either unemployed or retired, and were too poor to fence their own gardens. These projects began to grow, and when Bob retired in 2000, Kate Davies, a USPG missionary, took over as the project co-ordinator. Kate saw the need to expand the programme to involve a broader educational component, including schools, teachers, churches and the wider community.
Communities wishing to start a garden project are now found land, given vegetable seeds and fencing, and provided with a water supply. They are also trained in farming techniques, such as how to avoid soil erosion. Field officers give support, with the aim that projects become self-sustaining after a year.
The garden projects have also inspired other communities to begin other initiatives. These include:
- advice on land care and reclamation
- brick making
- craft projects such as sewing and dyeing
- chicken breeding
- a recycling project for schools
- building a pedestrian bridge over the Umzimvubu river, to replace a hand-drawn suspension cable box which until now has carried people over the river.
Sales of surplus garden produce have generated income for local HIV/AIDS projects. The Diocese wants to bring all church land into productive use to benefit communities.
Kate Davies says, “It is important for people to understand the link between their faith, caring for the earth and living sustainably. We see this entire programme as helping people to understand their connection with God and Creation”.
The Umzimvubu project recently won first prize in an environmental competition run by the East Cape Council of Churches, in South Africa.
The USPG (United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel) has undertaken to provide £10,000 a year to support the project, as part of its core funding - but it needs supporters such as Derby Diocese to help it raise this sum. There is a page about the project on the USPG website - click here for the main page and here for a news update.
For some statistics about life in South Africa click here
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