Garden doyen partners with local non-profit organisation to help empower locals with landscaping skills
FOURWAYS – The aim of the skills development project was to help people learn how to make ends meet by themselves.
Early this year, a local non-profit organisation, Daily Bread, partnered with a South African garden doyen, Terry Moller, to help those receiving food donations from the organisation acquire gardening and landscaping skills.
In August this year, the partnership reaped its first fruits when one of the project participants, John Kupa, completed his gardening and landscaping training under the supervision of Moller.
Founder and chairperson of Daily Bread Charmaine McGinley said the skills development project aimed to help people learn how to make ends meet by themselves. “We don’t want people to depend on handouts of food parcels that we give them. We want them to acquire skills that will help them support themselves and their families,” she said.
She added that when they introduced the programme early this year, Moller and the council of landscapers offered to help them with their time and resources to train people. “Today, we are reaping the first harvest of vegetables grown by one of our project participants, John Kupa, who has successfully completed his training,” said McGinley.
Moller said she was grateful to be part of the project that seeks to eradicate hunger while empowering people with skills. “I started doing gardening and landscaping at the age of 40. I sold all my companies to focus on learning how to do landscaping which is my passion. I have travelled to different countries learning and teaching people how to do good gardening. I’m now 80 years old and I want to transfer the skills I have to the next generation,” Moller said.
Kupe said he always wanted to get formal gardening training but never had the chance. When he heard about this opportunity, he decided to jump in and grasp the opportunity.
“I’ve learned a lot of things during the course of my training. It was really worth it to be part of the project, I’ve learned to do different types of gardening. I am going to use the skills that I learned here to improve my work,” said Kupe.
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