Hillcrest Rotary rolls out empowerment project

FORTY women have been empowered as they received a life-changing donation from the Rotary Club of Hillcrest’s 1 000 Survival Garden Kit project.

Five years ago, Luke Vorstermans, a member of the Rotary Club of Gibsons in British Columbia, stumbled upon a Johannesburg-based company that manufactured the innovative Hippo Rollers.

He saw the tool as an opportunity to both uplift and empower South African women and soon launched the Roll-a-Hippo Foundation.

Luke approached the Hillcrest Rotarians to help launch a project that used the Hippo Rollers as more than just a collection device but as part of a survival kit.

“The 1 000 Gardens Survival Kits project was born and the idea is to supply at least 1 000 women with 1 000 Hippo Rollers and 1 000 garden kits, whether it is for a garden in the beneficiary’s back yard or in a community garden,” said Hillcrest Rotarian, Brigitte Turner. “Especially during the Covid-19 outbreak, we need to help people survive.”

ALSO READ: Hillcrest AIDS Centre Trust’s Home Gardens bring relief to hungry families

On a roll

To start the ball rolling, Roll-a-Hippo Foundation sponsored 40 of the rollers and, alongside the Rotary Club of Winnipeg, the cost of the garden equipment was also raised.

Each kit contains a Hippo Roller, a shovel, rake and hoe, a watering can, seeds and seedlings, compost, fertiliser, a How-to-Grow-a-Garden Guide, soap, sanitiser and a face mask.

The seedlings are grown by the Hillcrest AIDS Centre Trust’s gardening community.

Each kit is valued at R2 501.

“The Hillcrest AIDS Centre Trust has a Gogo Garden project and we are now donating these kits to people who are already being mentored and we believe firmly that the project needs to be sustainable and this mentoring process will ensure this happens.

“I am a firm believer in giving a hand up and not a hand out. There is a place for food parcels but if we can give people a proverbial fishing rod and help them to feed themselves and their families, it is the most rewarding thing to do,” said Turner.

Hillcrest Rotary was designated as the lead in South Africa and it hopes to roll out the project to other Rotary clubs across the country. The local Rotarians hope to raise enough funds to donate at least 200 of these rollers to local women before the end of the year.

Empowered
Bongekile Majola (43), a KwaNyuswa mom of three, was overjoyed by the donation and said it will change her life.

“I was involved in an accident and I am unable to manage the garden on my own,” she said. “With this roller, it will help me greatly as my arm injury stops me from carrying large amounts of water in a single bucket. Having this will help me reduce the number of trips I will take and it won’t be so hard on my arm,” said the beaming mom.

ALSO READ: Hillcrest AIDS Centre Trust’s youth rise to the challenge

The Hillcrest AIDS Centre Trust’s CEO, Candace Davidson, said she was delighted to be partnering with Hillcrest Rotary, and Rotary clubs in Canada, to roll-out, quite literally, the Hippo Roller and emergency home garden starter kits.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has once again highlighted just how vulnerable so many families are in our local communities and how essential it is to safe-guard food security long-term. Food hampers are needed at a time like this but these are temporary relief and HACT’s focus remains on sustainable, community-led projects. So this partnership was a natural fit as HACT could tap into its extensive grandmother (gogo) and community garden networks to identify at-risk households in the Valley who were committed to start their own vegetable gardens and, in so doing, will improve the food security, nutrition and health of their families.”

Show your support
To support the project, contact Brigitte on 082 826 1451 or email brigitteg@hwthighway.co.za.

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At the time of going to press, the contents of this feature mirrored South Africa’s lockdown regulations.

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