Vukani Environmental movement Garden
Ronald Mhlakaza
Date:20/06/2024
Name: Ronald Mhlakaza
Place: Empumelelweni Extention 6
Municipality: Emalahleni Local Municipality
Province: Mpumalanga Province
Vukani Environmental Movement Garden Project
On the 4th of March 2024, VUKANI ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT worked with the community of Empumelelweni on different projects. The aim is to assist the communities to stand up and do things for themselves by empowering them to start their food garden projects.
This was to show people that by working together as communities we can achieve more in fighting poverty in coal-affected communities. We have shown that with the little land or space that we have, we can do something big for ourselves. Also, it’s a way of giving back to the community to combat hunger. After everything has grown, that’s when the team that was leading the Gardening project will identify households that are really in need of vegetables. The Community is going to benefit and members of the organisations will also benefit from the Garden.
From the 09th of April 2024, households and Members of the organisation together with church members started benefiting from the Garden. In all the wards of Empumelelweni, our organisation will identify a piece of land where our garden will be. This will be monitored by identified members within the Community, and we are moving gradually to other nearby areas with the same protect. This great initiative is happening in Empumelelweni extension 6 Mpumalanga Province, under Emalahleni Local Municipality in the Highveld region. The community of Empumelelweni extension 6 and members of the organization are also impressed this time around with the garden project. This is because the church will also benefit, including 70 Households from young people to the elderly.
Vukani Environmental Movement started by looking for a piece of land to start the project, fortunate enough we found a space in the church premises. Which meant that our garden would be safe because there was someone who was staying in the churchyard. We went to buy small different types of seedlings and the materials that are needed for gardening, and Members of the Organization came up with the day to start the project. Everyone was there to start planting, but it took us a week to finish the project and that’s how it started.
Going forward we need more of such initiatives or projects within our communities, especially Coal-affected Communities. This is necessary because most of the people are not employed by the coal mines and coal-fired power stations. It is not everyone who wants to work for a mining company, some people have a gift and love for farming. Vukani Environmental Movement has already started implementing a Gardening project within the Community of Empumelelweni, we are looking to go to other Wards and nearby areas. We will work together with our local Municipality in terms of getting land, recently we had a visitor (Mhlonishwa King Mahlangu) in our office. We spoke about the need to get land for garden projects. He promised to assist us because he was inspired by the work we are doing in our community