Wonder women grow vegetables and each other

ONE woman’s dream of helping to empower others has grown and flourished in 10 years and now ensures that more than 250 people have food in their bellies before they go to bed at night.

Ten years ago, Lydia Hlope started feeding more than 150 adults and children in the KwaNyuswa area with vegetables from a community garden they named Yenzanathi Community Upliftment Project in the Valley of 1 000 Hills.

Those who work in the garden receive vegetables to take home to their dependants.

Watering the seedlings was a big problem for the elderly gardeners as the only source of water was a spring and a small stream, forcing the gogos to carry watering cans for a considerable distance to and from the stream.

Since the installation of the two big JoJo tanks, the water is now fed to several watering points in the garden where the watering cans are easily filled.

Bernardine Hay, a member of the Federation of Women’s Institutes, heard about the garden project and approached the Associated Country Women of the World (ACWW) in London for financial assistance to buy water tanks and irrigation piping.

Recently, while on a visit to South Africa, ACWW World President, Ruth Shanks came to inspect the vegetable garden.

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The ACWW Vision in a nutshell is: Empowering, educating and enriching women worldwide. Since 1977, the ACWW has funded more than 1 000 community based, women-led projects in mainly rural communities around the world and their goal is to raise the standard of living for rural women and their families.

Mlungisi Mvelase, projects officer employed by Food and Trees for Africa, came to teach Lydia and her gardeners about soil preparation, planting and caring for the seedlings and how to market the organically grown produce.

At present 65 local households work in the garden and 257 community members benefit by receiving fresh vegetables such as spinach, cabbages, onions, leeks, beetroot, pumpkins and herbs.

Between 15 and 35 women work in the garden at any one time.

Widowed Simangele Ncwane has worked in the garden for two years and relies on the vegetables to feed her four dependants who are between six and 16 years old. Sylvia Dladla is also widowed and the garden helps provide her three children with nutritious veggies since 2010.

The 28-year-old Bawinile Ngcobo has two children and refused to sit at home and do nothing but rather help in the veggie garden to provide for her little ones.

Gugu Ndlovu, 41, supports four children and has only recently joined the project.

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