Thanks to Johnson Crane Hire, a 140-ton mobile crane made its way to the Benoni Child Welfare offices in Northmead to move three large containers.
The move is part of child welfare’s initiative to start a sustainable vegetable garden at its offices to help vulnerable communities.
The organisation will work hand-in-hand with Reaching Out to People of Ekurhuleni (ROPE), a local NPO, to address hunger in the communities. The local NPO is under a local church called ENDEO Family Church.
According to the director of child welfare, Vanessa Carelse, removing the containers was necessary to make space for the vegetable garden.
“ROPE has come on board to train us in food security. They will teach us how to plant, maintain and harvest.
“We plan to train the community members and our volunteers to grow healthy, organic food. We want to empower community development through skills training and to enable them to use the available resources to earn income,” she said.
Carelse said they would train the community members how to plant seeds, make organic compost, fertilizer and more.
“If anyone doesn’t have access to ground, they will be able to use our ground, and once they are sustainable, they will rent that plot of ground,” she said.
Carelse said they hope to start planting next month.
Jonathan Voorhout of Johnson Crane Hire said they offered their services for free as a token of appreciation to the organisation for its work with communities.
Benoni Child Welfare’s fundraiser and events planner, Jackie Spamers, said REEL Gardening and ROPE donated all the seeds.
“We will be trained to use this successful gardening method patented by REEL Gardening to equip our growers going forward. We thank God for the vision and ROPE for giving us this opportunity to learn this gardening method. We thank Gavin Lewis Parker for demolishing and cutting down nine trees to clear the garden area.
“Also, thanks to Jonathan Voorhout from Johnson Crane Hire for moving our containers. We thank Barend de Beer and Jaco Pretorius from BUCO Rietpan who donated all garden tools. ,” said Spamers.
Spamers appeals to anyone who can assist or donate 16m³ compost, JoJo tanks, stakes and rope to set out garden beds, gum poles, cement, shade netting and an irrigation system.
They also need someone to offer their services to remove tree stumps and rubble, cut the grass and plough the ground.
To donate or for more information, call Child Welfare on 011 849 5241 or 083 645 7595.
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