As part of their Honours sustainability project at the University of Johannesburg, the group of five students,  Anchor Your Culture were challenged to bring positive change to a community of their choice.

According to Anchor Your Culture’s representative, Nyiko Sibusiso Sithole they were inspired by JustDiggit, an NGO from the Netherlands that is focused on cooling down the earth and reversing the effects of global warming.

“When we engaged with the Riverside View residents, we found that they want to connect with their neighbours better and that there is an abundance of underutilised barren land. Our campaign #AnchorYourCulture was on a mission to nurture the community of Riverside View by creating a future of sustainable change,” he said.

Sithole said they planned to come together on Youth Day, the 16th of June, to really involve the youth of the community in the exciting activity of regreening the land for future generations.

“As students, we challenged ourselves to regreen our little piece of Africa with the help of our partners, The Golf Boys, Grow Wild, ArgiSETA and Inseta, who all assisted with tree donations, promotional gear and light snacks for our event. We planted 6 trees at Riverside View with the help of community members, who were excited that young folks were using their energy for good and sent 5 trees home with select residents to plant in their gardens,” said Sithole.

Sithole further explained that apart from regreening the land, the event was aimed to unite the community in a social activity, as they joined hands to dig deep and regreen an unused piece of land. One of their participants, Kate, revealed her love for our event by saying – “it was refreshing for me being indoors for the past week, hectic at work”.

“Our sponsors are all regreening leaders in their own right with Gretchen Greenville from Grow Wild spreading the message about the importance of planting indigenous trees. Another key member at our event was Kgaugelo from the Mathekga Foundation who has a similar project in Diepsloot that regenerates Wetland spaces. He was so enthusiastic during the event as he helped us to plant trees. He is part of a brilliant youth development programme called “Her City Project”, which encourages young women to take up space in the field of Urban City Planning.”

“Through community engagements and insight, we created a “Riverside View Manifesto” centred on environmental sustainability that Sipho Dubazana, the community leader, will use to encourage residents to take ownership of the tree donations. We hope our efforts will inspire other communities in South Africa to create a better future and greener environment for many years to come,” added Sithole.

The Anchor Your Culture group consists of five Strategic Communication Honours Students from the University of Johannesburg: Teyise Minenhle Dlamini, Saloshnee Govender, Sarah Tshegofasto Mashao, Hannah Jean Newbold and Nyiko Sibusiso Sithole.