Opuskreative is on a mission of greening Bez Valley.
“We want to go back to the oldest way of life, which is planting your own food. We use our hands like our forefathers to grow things,” said permaculturist Sun Mabengeza.
Mabengeza said Opuskreative started with waste recycling.
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“We use everything we recycle. Solid waste we reuse for art and sell what we can and the green waste we use in the garden,” said Mabengeza.
Opuskreative is based in Skills Village on Frere Road Bez Valley.
Mabengeza said they want to inspire residents to grow their own gardens and teach them how they can limit their waste from the kitchen to work in their gardens.
“We don’t use chemicals in our gardens. We use what we have in your kitchen. Our compost is all natural. We want gardening to be accessible to everyone,” said Mabengeza.
Opuskreative also does educational talks about what they do at schools, host demonstrations for residents who are interested in starting their own garden and also go to residents’ homes to start their gardens for them.
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“The reason we demonstrate to them is because we want residents to be able to grow their own veggies. We want to help them understand how to care for a garden and understand how plants protect each other and help each other grow. We grow crops for you in your garden, vegetables and herbs. We want to eliminate landfills and repurposing the waste that causes pollution,” explained Mabengeza.
He said it’s important for residents to understand the benefits of greening their neighbourhoods because it comes with health benefits and creates a cleaner society.
“As Opuskreative our vision is a cleaner and greener Bez Valley. Dirty environments make people feel unsafe but if we become responsible as residents, recycle and green our areas we can be happy,” said Mabengeza.
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“Gardening and growing things have made me feel like I’m sitting right next to my grandmother.”
He said they would like to see the community get involved.
“We want every house to be able to produce food from their own gardens. We want to see open spaces being turned into gardens to feed the community.”
If you interested in learning about gardening, contact Mabengeza on 072 682 2145 or email opuskreativemedia@gmail.com
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