On Saturday, 12 October, twenty-two hatted and gloved student volunteers began work on the vegetable garden below the M3. The wagon-wheel-shaped sunken garden at Welgelegen, home to UCT’s Communication and Marketing Department, fell into disrepair during the city’s crippling drought last year.
It was a special moment for the students and organisers, said Cindy Cherry of the student-run Green Campus Initiative’s iSondlo (“a provision”) project, that has partnered with Call 2 Care. This local non-profit organisation runs educational community development projects for corporates, government and the public. Its mandate is to improve lives through education and food security.
The programme being introduced at UCT, the iGardi Project, works through a simple, water-wise and low-maintenance approach to vegetable production. Importantly for the UCT context, the project promotes student agency and volunteerism. It also signals a departure from “charity hand-outs”, empowering individuals to meet their own basic need for nutritious food, said Cherry.
The first kick off of the event invited students from UCT to get involved and featured live bands who enhanced the energy while we all cleaned out the area, filled wheelbarrows with top quality soil. Once the soil was placed, a workshop facilitated by Call 2 Care explained concepts of permaculture, square foot gardening and companion planting. Mulch was then added to keep the seedlings and soil in top health.
We need all the help that we can get in order to establish more segments of the garden. There are so many ways to get involved whether you are a corporate or an individual. Corporates could look at sponsoring a segment of the circular garden and having their teams on-site for a fun exhilarating team build event facilitated by the Call 2 Care team. Individuals can get involved by volunteering their time and making a small donation.
To donate to this project, click here.
About Call 2 Care
Call 2 Care is a non-profit Organisation located in Cape Town that improves lives through educational outreach projects and socially conscious volunteer events while offering a sustainable end to end offering to corporates, government, and the general public.
About The iGardi Project
The iGardi Project is a fun and unique way to help increase the diversity of food and nutrition in underprivileged communities through our proven model for water-wise vegetable food gardening that educates and empowers individuals to ensure food security. The iGardi Project hosts a number of educational programs within communities to ensure that anyone is able to grow their own nutritious food sustainably. By connecting volunteer teams, NGOs and providing avenues for investment, we ensure local community involvement, training and build community ownership.
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