On 3 September 113 volunteers from Japan visited Swartkop Valley Primary School to help them to improve and plant more in their food garden. A small school located near Muldersdrift in Gauteng, the Swartkop Valley Primary School initiated their Permaculture food gardens with funding initially received from SASOL, and more recently from Woolworths. National social enterprise Food & Trees for Africa (FTFA) has been providing Permaculture skills training support and materials for this school since July 2006 and their gardens have been visited by many as a food security model.The Japanese volunteers were on a tree planting and food gardening goodwill mission to South Africa coordinated by the 'Wonderful World Tree Planting Festival' (WWTPF), a Japanese based organisation, and FTFA, who have been greening, addressing global warming and food sustainability since 1990. Leading the Japanese group was Earthwalker Paul Coleman, who has walked over 47000 km through 39 nations, spreading the environmental message, and Hiromitsu Noriyasu (Tentsukuman), a well known Japanese comedian and environmental activist. Japanese rock band Funkist joined this group and performed several times during their stay and meeting South African musicians for cultural exchange.
Permaculture is an organic, environmentally friendly and inexpensive form of food production and sustainable resource use and management. The Swartkop Valley Permaculture Project members have effectively integrated these technologies into the school curriculum. Learners are also encouraged to start their own food gardens at home to boost household food security.
A portion of the Swartkop Valley garden has been allocated to a number of orphaned and vulnerable learners who garden after school. These learners are provided with fresh vegetables in their daily meals through the school’s feeding scheme.
“ The learners’ school attendance has greatly improved thanks to the feeding scheme that has been boosted by the project,’’ commented Solomon Pule, project member and school grounds man. “We are excited to welcome so many volunteers who will provide us with more plants to improve our gardens.”
This event was part of a busy Arbor Month schedule for FTFA and was one of many projects the Japanese volunteers visited. On the day the volunteers worked alongside the learners and educators of Swartkop Valley Primary School, weeding, clearing and planting more trees and vegetables. Herbs were also being sponsored by Doonholm Nursery and vegetable and flower seeds from BallStraathof.
Woolworths Head Office has been providing funds to FTFA from its paper recycling drive since the early 1990’s and some of these funds were used to support this project. BallStraathof sponsored vegetable and flower seeds for the garden.