North organisation teaches learners food gardening
“The organisation develops sustainable living projects such as food gardens and recycling in township schools” he said.
A local non-profit organisation, Lesedi la batho foundation, teaches learners at schools in and around Winterveld, Mabopane and Soshanguve about food gardening as well as the importance of recycling.
Lesedi la Batho “adopted” 30 schools from Pretoria, where they taught learners how to create gardens for those schools.
The organisation was started by Xolani Ngwenya.
Ngwenya said the organisation provide learners with resources that will help them feed themselves.
“The organisation develops sustainable living projects such as food gardens and recycling in township schools,” he said.
He said in addition to school academics, learners should also learn how to be better people and independent from school.
“Our garden club lets boys and girls share responsibilities and skills such as respect, understanding and tolerance. It helps in creating change in their behaviour,” he said.
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“We learn a lot from interacting with different learners every day. We learn their different patterns of living, how they work together with each other, and how they behave when there are no adults.”
Ngwenya said food gardens were a source of organic vegetables for each school’s feeding schemes.
He said gardening is also an important factor in schools as it will help the school to have access to healthy and fresh food for learners.
“Food gardening helps the youth to take responsibility of their own health. It helps them know what to eat and the effects it has on their bodies and abilities,” said Ngwenya.
He said their goal for this year was to reach 100 schools.
“Environmental education should be prioritised in our daily lives as it helps us save money and eat healthy,” he said.
He said the organisation, however, do not have enough gardening tools for the learners.
“Sometimes we also have transport problems because we have only have one bakkie,” said Ngwenya.
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“Also we cannot reach certain schools as we cannot afford to load everybody and our garden tools because the bakkie is too small.
“We need some assistance in terms of transport and enough garden tools.
“Because we are a non-profit organisation, we wish to get some sponsorship or any kind of assistance.”
Ngwenya said in the near future he wants to see the organisation teaching environmental education in schools and expand their reach to the country as a whole.
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