Page 62 - SCAT Rural Voice II - 35 Stories for 35 Years

FOOD seCUrity
I tried to do my best to assist the community by providing skills and resources to maintain and build food gardens. Some community members were expecting more from the organisation to maintain and water their gardens which was not possible to do. This was very strenuous as we didn’t have the capacity to do the work for them. The organisation was also assisting the community so they could take ownership and be self-sustainable. From the training I received from SCAT I tried my best to encourage our staff to educate our community with the skills they acquired. The training also helped me to do analysis before starting a project. It also helped me learn that a project should be explained properly so that the right targets are reached.We encouraged the community members who attended the food garden training not to start planting if they felt they were not ready.
I learned that the best way of selecting the right people to work on a project is to choose those who have an interest in the project. The food garden training and assessment helped the participants who showed an interest in the food gardening to avail themselves. They planted and produced vegetables. This made me happy as it was one of the reasons we wanted to assist. We also experienced challenges with climate change and the training helped as participants were taught when to plant different vegetables.
I have learned that when you want to assist people in a community to change their lives, the best method is to ask members of the community what will work for them so that they can take ownership of a project.
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RuRal Voice ii: 35 stories for 35 years Gardener Frans Marwaane at Kgatelopele Social Development Forum (KSDF).