Origin

Thanda’s Organic Farming Initiative grew from the realisation that children in our Education and Early Learning Programmes needed a more holistic approach to their nutritional needs as this directly impacts their learning and development.

Receiving a substantial nutrient-dense meal at Thanda helped ensure that they received the macro and micronutrients necessary for a healthy body and mind but more was possible!

We introduced our Organic Farming Initiative to ensure that the families within our community would have access to fresh, reasonably priced, organic vegetables with which to feed their households. This way, children would be receiving nutritious meals at home as well as at Thanda and, with this holistic approach to their diets, we’d be providing another cog to help ensure that they would have the best possible chance to thrive. Many households rely on pensions and grants as their only income. With the opportunity to work and increase the household income, guardians now not only have the opportunity to ease the stress on their finances but also set a great example for their children, who return home from school to see their guardians actively engaged in work to provide for their family’s development and survival.

Since its inception our Organic Farming Initiative has exploded, with various programmes aimed at young and old. It has been accepted as a viable career option and now even younger community members are getting involved in the Initiative.

Mentors

Today we introduce to you some of our Household Garden Programme mentors.

Our mentors have been trained to help the participants in our farming programmes produce the best possible harvests by trouble-shooting issues, helping with problems, imparting knowledge on best practices and sometimes, even, mediating disagreements between farmers!

They are an integral part of our Organic Farming Initiative and are dedicated to their roles. Our Household Garden Programme mentors are focused on the Household Garden Programme participants, where enrolees are taught to grow vegetables in their backyard.

Qinisela Ngcobo started working at Thanda in 2020.

“I have 57 Household Gardens that I currently look after. It can be challenging to monitor, but I have devised a strategy to give each household the same attention. I visit two different neighbourhoods in a week; spending two or three days in each.

With the 57 households I’ve seen great change and development. In the beginning when I started working on this programme the farmers had a big problem of livestock destroying the gardens. We then helped them with training and advice to look into natural resources such as using tree branches to make their own fencing.”

The changes Qinisela has seen through the duration of the programme have been notable “The changes I’ve seen are not only with what we teach the farmers and seeing their harvests increase, but also their financial state. I can’t single out one house because there have been so many homes where we have received feedback that they do not go to grocery shops to buy vegetables any longer because they’re now able to eat their own produce. It makes me proud to see that we are making a difference in someone’s life.”

It is clear that being a mentor gives Qinisela a great sense of purpose, and she shares how she views her role “I see myself as a ‘solider’ helping to fight poverty and helping with food security for the less privileged in our community.”

In addition to helping others become more self-sufficient and empowered, Qinisela also feels that she has grown her own skills. “Over the past two years that I’ve worked at Thanda and working with farmers, I’ve learnt patience and communication skills. I’ve discovered that it is really important to know how to deal with and approach different people, because not everyone reacts in the same way and not everyone can grasp concepts at the same pace.”

Bongumusa Xaba works with 60 gardeners.

Since joining the team he has learned to be flexible. He shares that “working in an area that you’re not familiar with can be very challenging. People have different attitudes and beliefs so I have had to learn to adapt to that.”

He has also encountered some death-defying challenges! “We work in different areas and most of the routes we travel, we can’t use a vehicle so we walk. Sometimes we walk long distances through uphill bushy fields. Once a big snake even approached us, my heart almost stopped beating I couldn’t believe it.” Luckily everyone escaped unscathed from the snake encounter! While they were all very shaken, they continued onward to the household garden as they knew the gardener would be waiting for them and needed assistance.

Bongumusa says that the value of the Household Garden Programme lies not only in the fact that it provides households with food on the table and frees up funds to be spent on other essential items BUT ALSO, the huge mindset shift that Household Gardens and the Thanda Organic Farming Initiative in general has effected in the community.

“We come from a community were there aren’t many opportunities. People would rather leave the rural area and go to cities (Durban) where they might find a way to earn a living. Thanda’s Organic Farming Initiative has removed the stigma that farming is for ‘rural old people’ within the community. This Initiative has catered for young people looking for employment opportunities too. So many of our youth have matriculated but have no jobs. Usually, idle hands cause more harm than good, but in our community, the young ones are now preoccupied with opportunities to work and develop their skills through the Organic Farming Initiative.”

Bonisile Mzobe, started mentoring 59 Household Garden farmers and now helps 90 people!

She explains that the beginning was quite challenging because of how new the concept of growing your own food was to the community. “From the time I started, it was difficult because the people in the community did not know much about farming, the different types of seedlings, etc. So we had to start with the basics. It was more challenging because most of the households are headed by elderly people, so they would take longer to grasp concepts. Through Thanda’s training, which teach us to be respectful, humble and try to understand the farmers’ background before we can attempt working with them we always manage to reach a common ground and slowly but surely we see progress.”

She has also seen progress in herself as she has grown and developed her interpersonal skills through her interactions with the community and working closely with farmers “I was a shy person, but now myself esteem is higher and I am able to speak and communicate with people. Working with the community has helped me develop my social skills.”

She has high hopes for the future of the Household Gardens Programme “My wish is that more families can start the Household Gardens Programme. Especially in the most rural communities. It’s not only beneficial financially but, there are nutritional benefits too.”

Thanda’s mission is to empower humans with skills to allow them to grow into compassionate, contributing members of society. In chatting with our Household Garden mentors it makes us happy to see that this mission is being served not only in the upskilling of the participants of our Household Gardens Programme, but also in the developing of our staff, who all originate from within the same communities. We love using a holistic approach and we hope it shines through in everything we do.