North-West University puts Thabo’s dream on the map

A senior lecturer and a student at Urban and Regional Planning at the North-West University has recognised Thabo Kolodi’s dream of starting a community garden in Extension 11.

Karen Puren and one of her final year students, Denise Janse van Rensburg, entered a World Town Planning Day Competition together and were awarded the first runner-up for their multipurpose community garden design, inspired by Thabo.

Puren says it all started when Thabo got to hear of an open field in Extention 11 that was earmarked for RDP housing. “Thabo has a great heart and had started a soup kitchen at home to provide food for children over weekends. Since no RDP building projects were underway, he thought it would be a sin to let it go to waste. With the help of community members, he transformed a small part of the vast open field (38,000 square metres) into a vegetable garden. Before then, the field was a rubbish dump, since people in the surrounding areas were dumping their waste there.”

Thabo and community members have changed a polluted area into a sustainable community garden. According to Puren, one of the sustainable development goals is to end all forms of hunger and malnutrition by 2030. “The project tells a story of hope, of how spatial planning and design can be used as a powerful tool to address hunger. It illustrates how transdisciplinary cooperation between community members, small businesses, local government and a university (NWU), may well be a small step towards responding to a global crisis,” she says.

Puren and Janse van Rensburg’s beautiful design includes hard open spaces adjacent to roads that are flexible zones for various economic activities (markets, gathering places, exhibition space, etc.)

There is also a third open space in the centre for relaxation or socialisation. Soft open spaces alongside the channel are left as flexible spaces that are open for members of the public to use for gardening.

The design has three permaculture gardens – two vegetable gardens and a medicinal garden. There are play areas for children, scattered throughout the garden and two waste management areas where the community can sort waste. This can also be used as a training facility to teach the youth about recycling.

Worm farms, chicken runs, and education points containing information on boards are also part of the design. Thabo has already started a very successful worm farm near his garden.

“Our prize shows that this project has a lot of potential, but we need expertise and funding to realise it. It doesn’t have to happen all at once. We need people who will be willing to join and share knowledge and experience, institutions and companies who will be willing to fund trees, plants, and equipment,” says Karen.

Anyone who wants to get involved is welcome to contact Karen Purén via email at karen.puren@nwu.ac.za or Thabo Kolodi at 064 046 0391.