seed funders report
SEED FUNDERS REPORT
2010
CONTENTS From the Board
3
From the Director
4
From the Financials
5
Staff Development
7
Highlights
8
Our Programmes
9
Accredited Permaculture Training
9
Rocklands Outdoor Classroom
11
Rocklands Community Market
12
The Organic Classroom Programme
14
Our partners - the schools
18
Bathabile Primary Sefekiing Primary Nottingham Road Combined School Zoar E K Primary Duineside Primary Kairos Primary Springdale Primary Westville Primary Fexekha High School Leiden Primary Seaview Primary Sokhanyo Primary Alpine Primary Hillside Primary Iqayiha High School Littlewood Primary Zenzeleni Waldorf School Ridgevill Primary West End Huguenot Primary Imperial Primary Carvelle Primary
20 22 24 26 28 30 32 35 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 52 53 56 58 59 60 61
What works
62
Looking forward to 2011
63
“What Permaculturalists are doing is the most important activity that any group is doing on the planet�
Dr. David Suzuki 2
FROM THE BOARD Dear Friends of SEED If there is to be a future worthy of human beings, we MUST re-equip our children to understand and reverence nature, as well as each other. Generations of children are being bred in neon-lit classrooms, in front of TV and computers at home, and in malls for relaxation. These kids are in danger of being crippled creatively, emotionally and ethically. They can easily become a threat to any form of sustainability, and turn into a mob of selfish mad consumers who put themselves first before anything that is true, good and beautiful. SEED has the solution – its simple! The Outdoor Classroom – an intelligently cultivated natural and built space where every aspect of life, science and numbers can be met, tested and learned, in full vivid living creative truth. It’s a bit like the “old world” Farms and Countryside, where many pioneering professors and rocket scientists were bred. The Outdoor Classroom is a true School and University for all. Every single subject and lesson and equation and theory – especially social skills, literacy and numeracy, maths and science right up to University level, can be learnt and studied and taught, far better than in a sterile lecture hall or classroom. Social Entrepreneurship is one natural outcome of Outdoor Classrooms – kids who make community based gardens work gain the full range of social and business skills as a matter of course. And best of all, every learner who passes properly through an Outdoor Classroom is equipped to understand and practice Sustainable Livelihoods. The future of the world lies in the hands of children who become able to learn how to practice Sustainable Livelihoods using their full imaginative creativity, applying discipline and logic at the same time. Please support SEED. The future of the planet depends on it.
Rob Small
Outgoing Chairman
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FROM THE DIRECTOR My teacher (Geoff Lawton) in Australia always said: “All the worlds problems can be solved in a garden.” This idea has been sitting with me this year. The first place my life really made sense was living on the permaculture research institute in australia, for the first time i was in my rightful place in the eco-systems that supported me. The simple rhythms of growing food, eating it and Pooing it back into the soil; catching water for drinking and working within the agricultural rhythms of the farm. Human biology has grown out of the natural environment; in the past those who could smell the water, find the plants and safe shelters and follow the animals had the survival advantage. Think about how trees have shaped civilisation by providing us with the materials for fuel and shelter; they also helped to shape our dextrous arms and sensitive palms that in turn grew our intellect. We have removed ourselves from the natural world that shapes us and in the process, I believe, lost our souls. The work SEED does at schools is a lot about reconnecting children to the land. Think about where most urban teenagers intelligence lies: Ask them for five jeans labels and they can rattle them off at speed – ask them to name five indigenous food trees and you would get a blank look at best. So we work at growing Ecological Intellegence, with the belief that if all decisions were made with the ecologies that support us in mind, the world would be in a very different place. Apart from this, gardening: • Creates hope and the ability for positive action • Is a metaphor for social change. • Teaches patience • Teaches children optimism • Encourages inventiveness • Demonstrated adaptability to change • Teaches harmony • Created living laboratories for learning in a relevant way • Offers children real experiences – as opposed to media experiences • Opens children to miracles • Teaches food security skills • Is part of a climate mitigation strategy 4
So, maybe Geoff is right! I certainly believe wholeheartedly that this work is very important for children and it may just be what we need to do to face the end of oil, the climate crisis …. And in the process we may just find our souls and meaning.
Leigh Brown Director
FROM THE FINANCIALS
JAN - NOV 10
FEB - DEC 09
2,263,734.26
2,003,151.32
Friends of SEED
21,940.00
0.00
Interest Received
18,542.45
57,233.14
Other Income
20,060.34
5,942.99
SEED Sales
36,415.89
56,247.49
Training fees
82,850.00
53,627.50
Total Income
2,443,542.94
2,176,202.44
OCP - National Program
654,784.43
626,297.07
OCP - Cape Flats
907,264.66
870,152.17
Applied Permaculture Training
130,620.21
207,103.81
Audit
15,960.00
19,936.00
Educational Resource Development
125,000.00
35,300.00
127,922.05
5,334.00
Operational Costs
198,309.85
171,674.03
SEED Sales
129,413.85
56,771.87
Staff Capacity Development
6,290.23
0.00
Teachers for Permaculture Education
18,700.00
42,082.77
Total Expense
2,314,265.28
2,034,651.72
Surplus for the Year
129,277.66
141,550.72
INCOME Funders Income
EXPENSE
Rockland’s Outdoor Classroom
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FROM THE FINANCIALS 2010 was a good year as far as financial systems are concerned; the 2009 SEED National Workshop went a long way with regards to fine-tuning our internal system. I would like to discuss the following finance issues: This year SEED received R2.3 million (compared to R2million for 2009) from funders in total for the OCP in Cape Town and National Program, which means an increase of 13.5%. Included in that figure is a total of R464 000 which was earmarked for the Rockland’s Outdoor Classroom – this program will roll over into 2011. We received a 67% less interest for the first 3 Quarters, this was mainly due to us having little money in the Bank as we entered into the year and also we had more funders opting to make funds available to us in tranches rather than once off. Other income received was R20’000 and mainly consists of an insurance claim. SEED Sales comprises mainly of Markets, Books, Posters and Clothing. We sold R36 000, which is a 35% drop from the previous year for the same period. Books accounted for half the income, followed by Markets and Clothing, which contributes almost the same amount with a total contribution of R12 000, Posters also contributed R2 000 into SEED Sales. SEED Sales closes the year with a high amount of stock, which explains the discrepancy between income and expenditure. Applied Permaculture conducted in August saw training feed fees totaling R80 000 and the entire course costed SEED R130 000. This is an important step for SEED as we begin to seek ways to cover our costs other than fund raising.
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Thanks to our “Friends for SEED” who contributed the remainder R22 000 of the funds. We really appreciate your support. It has been an extremely busy year regarding Educational Resource Development where we spent R125 000 on materials and consultants. Looking forward to 2011, we are excited about continuing to do what we believe in and love (growing outdoor classrooms), and also the prospect of embarking on a Mushroom project is going to be a challenge for us all, but it’s a challenge we are itching to tackle. I would like to that all our Funders who have shown a lot of faith in us over the years, I can assure you that we at SEED will strive to make you proud. “Friends for SEED”, I am rather speechless with the amount of support you give us, you give us strength to believe that “We are enough”. Have a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous 2011.
Carvine Guyo
STAFF DEVELOPMENT
Carvine Guyo is busy with a Bachelor of Commerce Degree specializing in financial management. Carvine’s majors are: financial accounting and management, but along the way he will has to pass economics, quantitative techniques, commercial law, corporate and individual taxation. Sounds exciting!
history of the organisation in order to learn from the past and then focus on future plans. Robina’s slides of garden designs and structures from around the world were extremely informative and her visual demonstrations, planting and planning calendars will help Seed facilitators for years to come.
Theo Oldjohn and Yoliswa Mahobe attended a Master 1 training workshop with the Conscious Coaching Institute. This course taught them new and better ways of treating themselves and others. As Permaculturists we uphold the principle of respect of mother nature, we understand the importance of environmental intelligence in our society. Unless there is congruency in what we think, we do, we feel and we envision, we will have no positive impact in the life of those we come across. This was an awesome experience!
Dynamic Facilitation Workshop: Robina McCurdy
Seed Staff Development: A workshop with Robina McCurdy Cape Town staff attended two days of workshops with Robina and learned a great deal from her vast experience in Gardening as well as cultural and community development. She has great skills as a facilitator and methods of quickly assessing where people’s skills and knowledge lie, in order to offer what is needed most. As the original founder of Seed, It was fascinating to go through a detailed
Tina De Waal attended Robina’s Dynamic Facilitation Workshop that was held at Tholego in Rustenburg. She found it an amazing tool for facilitation education and strengthening of skills and tools to assist in transfer of knowledge and education. It was a dynamic 5 days of work, process and fun. Robina and Sue Spies facilitated a workshop that encouraged, motivated and inspired us to strive for new heights in education and teaching.
ECO-VILLAGE DESIGN WORKSHOP Leigh Brown thoroughly enjoyed a three day workshop held at Jakkalsvlei Ecovillage in Swellendam. The course was aimed at building capacity and awareness in the realm of Ecovilage design and development. The course was pertinent to the development of Rocklands Outdoor Classroom and the core realization was that the people processes always take the most care. 7
HIGHLIGHTS
Sagenet partnership VIVA SAGENET and your incredible volunteers! We welcome this year Nadine, Monica and Valerie who will be working with SEED for a full year. They are already proving to be a HUGE asset to the team, working with SEED facilitators at schools, supporting Rocklands Community Market and doing whatever else is needed.
Seed awarded imphumemelo award THE ORGANIC CLASSROOM was awarded this prestigious award for Innovation.
Stanford university partnership THIS WONDERFUL PARTNERSHIP sees Students working with SEED in either an In-service or a research capacity. We look forward to this insight and input as we build Rocklands as a centre for research and demonstration.
Being greeted by excited learners every day we arrive at schools. ROCKLANDS CENTRE DESIGN PROCESS. 8
Cooking workhop for soup kitchen staff THE WORKSHOP, held at Rockland’s Primary, was a gastronomic feast. Larissa Green, chef and author of ‘Love Green Food’ facilitated the workshop for SEED School Feeding Scheme cooks, using fresh vegetables from school gardens. The focus was educating people about simple healthy cooking using fresh, organic and seasonal ingredients. Strengthening the link between gardens and feeding schemes is essential if we are to truly begin to eradicate hunger. Thanks Larissa - you are incredible! THE NATIONAL WORKSHOP was fabulous, inspiring and maybe even a little life changing.
ROCKLANDS CENTRE DESIGN PROCESS. Realising that our funders have vision and are as committed as we are.
RUNNING OUR SECOND ACCREDITED PERMACULTURE TRAINING and realising the system does work and the hard work will pay off.
OUR PROGRAMMES
Accredited Permaculture Training Our second Applied Permaculture Training was successfully run again at Rockland’s Primary, the SEED training garden and headquarters, from 8 to 27 August 2010. One and a half years after the first APT, this living Permaculture system is even more impressive, resilient and abundant. This second APT stimulated a lot of enquiry into educational styles, peoples’ different learning modes and meeting the challenge of a group that spoke nine languages between the 20 participants! Although we had a diverse group of people on the course, we found that Permaculture values were common to many beliefs and cultures. These ethical foundations a re what Permaculture is built on. We were able to explore ‘Earth Care’ through a thorough investigation of ecosystems and processes, as well as the ecological laws that govern Permaculture design. A field trip deepened our connection to and understanding of Nature. The entire course was one of learning how to express this ethic practically in our daily lives. ‘People care’ was a theme that ran through many aspects of the course – the good solar cooked
food we ate, the sharing and growing sense of family as well as the social activism that was so important to all. Many participants were involved in NGO’s so the concept of ‘Surplus Share’ was easily incorporated. This ethic expresses our collective responsibility to use our spare resources towards the ends of earth and people care. The training garden at Rockland’s offered an inspiring and practical site for learning the application of Permaculture in the tough conditions of the Cape Flats. By the end of this course, we were confident that all the participants were competent practitioners, as well as critical thinkers in the Permaculture field. As Permaculture is a growing field, and we have a small number of assessors, we had to assess participants during and at the end of the course. This put a fair amount of pressure on everybody. The high levels of commitment from everybody involved made this possible. 9
OUR PROGRAMMES Participants who exited this course last year and this year have definitely focused into Permaculture careers or practice. The strength of this training is that we approach sustainable development from a global as well as South African context. The course itself is focused, technical and exposes participants to the broad application of Permaculture. The Cape Flats environment is also very harsh – and people are able to experience first hand the productivity and beauty of well-designed food, medicine and energy systems through learning in the Rockland’s garden system. We look forward to next years course, as we know it will contribute to capacity building in the sustainable development field.
APT PAST STUDENTS are proof that this course is enabling and building post carbon professionals: KHAYA POTWANA has started a food garden in Stanford, Western Cape. He is selling produce in the Stanford Market and teaching from his garden. SIYABULELA MAYEDWA has applied to Department of Agriculture for support, and it look s like DWAF and SanParks funding could help him set up a Permaculture Home Garden Training Centre in Cradock, Eastern Cape. NURJHA KHAN has designed and implemented Permaculture at her workspace in Mitchells Plain Cape Town and is a regular researcher at SEED’s library. NATALIE DORWOOD is in the middle of her first Permaculture consultancy job; designing and implementing a food garden and forest garden system in Cape Town. GRADUS TESSELING and his family are setting up a Permaculture system in Hopetown, near Kimberly – the heart of centre pivot commercial farming land! Northern Cape NICI RICHTER has bought a farm in the Klein Karoo and is going great guns on olives, goats and the like – Western Cape. MR MOLOTO has expanded their already large garden and is feed their school kids in Limpopo. He continues to explore Permaculture and Sustainability Issues and talks to SEED regularly.
NTOMBENHLE MTAMBO has started to transform life in her community. She is working in Schools, has greened her neighborhood, started supporting home food gardening and has secured 1000m2 from Municipality to start an education Permaculture garden in her neighborhood. SLYDEN MADUVEKO is still working for Urban Harvest in Cape Town and has been training his teammates in Permaculture and infusing Permaculture into the gardens implemented in affluent Cape Town. GABRIEL MNGOMA returned to the Durban Botanical Gardens, and has subsequently taken up a permanent post in the KZN Department of Agriculture and works in the rural areas with small farmers. SEAN SPENDER is setting up the gardens at Mdumbi Backpackers in the Eastern Cape. The Backpackers is also an NGO, which serves the broader community in Mdumbi. DEBBIE DIAMOND is now living at Camphill Village, Hermanus and runs the commercial scale chicken system for food production and education. LINDA KOCK has returned to work at Southern Cape Land Committee, and NGO, which is involved in land restitution and sustainable livelihoods work. She is finding what se has learned to be an interesting framework for all of her work. LUCIE CONRADIE runs a Permaculture garden near Hermanus with a group of physically challenged people.
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OUR PROGRAMMES
Rocklands Outdoor Classroom We are planning to build an international standard Sustainability Centre that serves as an education centre and model of best practice that supports gardenbased livelihoods enterprise that builds abundance.
The Process To Date: HOLISTIC GOAL FORMATION The Holistic Goal Formation process was held at the SEED Rockland’s office, with participation of Cape Town SEED staff members, Rockland’s Primary educators and community members. The aims of the process are to gather stakeholders together to work towards a common goal for the Centre. Rockland’s Permaculture Design We then spent two days mapping a site design for Rockland’s. We spent good time on sector mapping and then moved onto Design Concepts. We then explored this further through the Design Themes, which was really useful in that it clearly showed the links between elements in the site and therefore suggests placement. This resulted in a conceptual design, which forms the basis of the zones and broad placement of systems and buildings. Rockland’s Building Design This process was kick-started in the Design day, with Architects Donne Putter and Jo Rawson present. We now have a clearer idea of what buildings will be placed where. We have the basic sketches of the buildings. The Architects, who have a firm footing in Sustainability and have completed PDCs, have expanded these. Our builder, Cameron Barnes, is also well versed and experienced in all things sustainable – he has the basis of an Architecture degree coupled with a Masters from the Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales. We are working with an amazing team!
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OUR PROGRAMMES Next Steps The Completed Design The Architects and builders are now hard at work identifying local waste streams, testing soil and getting to know the area thoroughly so that the design they come up with is the most innovative and appropriate for the site. We plan to show case a variety of earth friendly building methods and renewable technology. The final plans will be submitted to council in February.
First building We have enough initial funding to build the Caretakers house. We plan to use the budget allocated to RDP houses (the tiny houses they are building for homeless people) and build something that is earth sensitive and humane. This will be the first demonstration of our education approach.
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OUR PROGRAMMES
Rocklands Community Market
Rockland’s Community Market has grown out of the entrepreneurial projects at Green Business schools and the growing will in the Rockland’s community for a thriving culture that sees community connecting over organic food and shared values. It is encouraged by the idea of slowing money down within communities and creating abundance and sustainable livelihoods. The Market is growing and community members have started a Committee that is responsible for future markets. Their responsibilities vary from planning, organizing, marketing to managing the market. The committee has investigating other markets and looking at other stalls that can be included.
Education
From our Partners
The market has created a space for learners from schools to sell the products they have made in their entrepreneurial projects. This completed the whole business chain from investigation to manufacturing to selling. The experience is real as learners experience marketing and selling wares. More than 15 school communities have participated in the Market this year and some have made some reasonable income.
“I sell plants, worm tea and greeting cards in the market, Seed staff thought me and showed how to build a worm farm. My worm farm now has hundreds and hundreds of worms. From the market I make some money that helps me to buy petrol, electricity, bread and milk. This is also a social space where are I interact with other people and share ideas and experiences.”
Mr. Solomons
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OUR PROGRAMMES
The Organic Classroom Programme SEED is growing the following nodes:
Limpopo Johannesburg
Karoo Cape Flats
Kwa Zulu Natal
The Organic Classroom has been a success because of the way it completely transforms the learning environment. It brings an agriculturally productive ecosystem, with the diversity, stability and resilience of natural ecosystems, directly into the school grounds. The Organic Classroom Program partners schools for three years, each year with a slightly different focus building on the skills of the previous year. We identify champions in each school, teachers who are eager and interested and give them support and encouragement. Our facilitators provide weekly mentoring of teachers to plan and deliver education in the garden. Continued mentoring and support is essential to build capacity of teachers and students to affect a degree of self-sufficiency for each school. SEED’s lessons are based on the needs of the garden and the Western Cape Education Department’s compulsory work schedule for teachers. This means that SEEDs work supports teachers in the relevant delivery of Outcomes Based Education. After three years we leave each school with inspired learners and teachers, and a productive, beautiful garden for food security and education.
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Participating schools pass through three project phases: YEAR 1 (GREEN BEGINNINGS) starts with a consultative Permaculture Design process – The implementation includes: The Outdoor Classroom, Indigenous shelter belts, Food forests, Rain harvesting systems, Mulch and compost systems, Vegetable gardens, Herb barriers. The education component is theme-based and linked to the implementation process. IN YEAR 2 (GREEN ABUNDANCE) we work at continued enriching and tweaking of systems while developing a garden-based entreprenurial system for education and income generation. YEAR 3 (GREEN ACHIEVERS) sees schools operating more on their own with SEED supporting the school to own the outdoor classroom. This is a further measure towards sustainability as SEED is able to support schools with any challenge they may experience.
OUR PROGRAMMES
Monitoring and Evaluation Casting the net wider SUMMARY: In October 2010 Lindsay Dozoretz initiated a process for an improved Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) system for SEED. Intern Stefanie Zwolak joined the team in November to assist with the evaluation process in the Cape Town area, while Alex Kruger worked on SEED’s third year schools. The aim of this work was to streamline existing Monitoring and Evaluation framework for SEED schools in order to more correctly measure and be able to demonstrate project impact, to more accurately identify and assess candidate schools, and to more precisely assess progress in order to inform program delivery and development.
OBJECTIVES: The improved M&E System will accomplish the following: • • • • •
Support facilitators in program delivery at schools Increase facilitator capacity to adhere to SEED process Create an effective feedback loop to address challenges before they become problems Increase effectiveness of monitoring the facilitation process & provide a means for facilitation staff to document their own progress
•
•
Encourage active engagement & involved participation from schools Facilitate self-monitoring of project progress at schools for internal motivation to reach program goals, and to document & celebrate progress and success Provide a regular format for gathering data and testimonials of project success and impact for program reporting & donor accountability
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OUR PROGRAMMES OUTCOMES ACHIEVED: 1) An improved Sustainability Index – SEED’s main monitoring tool 2) Testing of the improved Sustainability Index in 8 schools 3) A revised School Partnership agreement 4) A revised School Application Form
5) A monitoring form to assess initial status of SEED schools at the start of program 6) A quantitative monitoring form to calculate quantity of food used in feeding schemes from garden 7) The improved Sustainability Index now being implemented as a monitoring tool in all SEED schools nationally
THE WAY FORWARD There is still much more work to be done, and the utility of these M&E tools need to be tested within the program. This initial work has laid the groundwork and set the context for a more straightforward monitoring and evaluation process. This is more and more necessary as SEED grows and is looked to as a model for replication within South Africa and beyond.
Monitoring & evaluation 2010
Testing and tightening the new processes JANUARY Leigh Brown visited National Schools in January. The aim of the visit was to support National Facilitators with design and scheduling for the year ahead. We are finding that the 3 M&E visits per year are really working to hold the process and mentor facilitators. What is exciting is to see Community Facilitators being built in all nodes. JUNE Bood Carver conducted the June M&E visits and used the Sustainability Index to see where schools were. This aimed at monitoring and evaluating infrastructure, gardens, education, and facilitation and school partnerships. He visited Sefeking and Bathabile Primary Schools outside Johannesburg where the scale of food production is huge as well as Nottingham Rd. Combined School in Kwa-Zulu Natal. NOVEMBER We worked as a team to measure progress at schools using the new and improved Sustainability Index. Lindsay Dozoretz assessed schools in Johannesburg, Limpopo and Cape Town while Stephanie Zwolak worked on schools in Cape Town. Alex Kruger assessed schools in Kwa Zulu and the Karoo.
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NATIONAL STRATEGY WORKSHOP The whole SEED team spent a fantastic five days at Berg n Dal Ecovillage. The Aims for the workshop were to review the year, learn from each other’s strengths through peer teaching and plan and equip us for an incredible year in 2011. We visited Zoar Primary and gained a lot from seeing the way the education system is adapted to the Karoo conditions. We also delved into Inspirational Breath work and unlocked some of our limiting beliefs and really bonded as a team. What wonderful people we work with – it was so amazing to spend some real time with each other instead of the usual passing each other at a jog.
OUR PROGRAMMES
Innovation The Chicken Hotel
Wind Turbines from Waste Andreas Pena Doll, a 19-year old student from Stanford University. Designed and built wind turbines using scrap material. The turbines now power lights at Fezeka High in Gugulethu and the SEED office at Rockland’s Primary in Mitchells Plain. The turbine is made of steel drums and wheel rims from a scrap yard for the turb ine, which spins on top of a six-meter pole. This is stored in a deep cell truck battery before powering four led. Tube lights. The coils and magnets for the generator are home made, with the help of Peter Becker.We look forward to more of this kind of project and have been amazed by the impact they have had in developing curiosity in learners.
In order to improve fertility at Westville Primary School, Bood designed and built a “chicken Hotel” which works on the age-old system of the chicken tractor. It is a system where the chickens live in an open bottomed home where they can scratch, eat living plants, enjoy a dust bath and lay eggs, while fertilising the ground with their manure. Every three weeks, the “hotel” is moved to a new patch of ground or vegetable bed, which has been recently harvested, so that they can eat the remaining plants and prepare the soil for new planting. It takes 2 adults or 4 learners to move the entire Hotel to its new location. Bood’s 5 Star Chicken Hotel has two stair cases, two floors for nesting and laying, it’s own gutters and rain harvesting water container as well as plenty of headroom for humans and chickens. The protected, nesting boxes and “egg door” were made from old school desks and corrugated iron roof sheets. The Gr.3 Learners helped to paint the sign and feed the chickens from the garden. The happy hens are laying up a storm.
Facilitator Bags Eidin Griffin added her colour and humour to the development of Facilitator Bags. These bags support facilitators to deliver the Organic Classroom Program. They are full of games and educational aims that bring the curriculum to life. We had a wonderful time with Eidin as she introduced her wares and we got to experience them as learners would. Each SEED facilitator has been equipped with a bag of tricks and we look forward to the further development of this resource.
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OUR PROGRAMMES
Our partners - The Schools Magovhani Junior Primary Haravele, Venda, Limpopo
GREEN BEGINNINGS Summary: As a pioneer project in the region, this school program has truly started from scratch and moved through many challenges: a harsh dry season, long breaks from school for the World Cup and the educator strike, destruction of the garden by neighbouring chickens, and yet with bright effort from the school staff and lots of innovation and spirited collaboration, the school and SEED worked together to overcome these obstacles and bring a beautiful garden to life. There is immense potential at this school for the school garden to thrive and really become a valuable part of the school in many ways. There is a strong desire to be an example in the region, and the headmistress has a strategic position in the district, which could serve to promote this type of activity in schools far and wide, and to really catalyze change in this area where the need for improved food security is particularly acute.
Year Highlights: PLANTING THE FOOD FOREST: There are 11 tree pans of various fruit & nut trees, including mango, litchi, avocado & macadamia nut, filled with herbs & perennials. The food forest will be a focal point of the garden & it is already taking shape to be a fabulous, sustainable component into the future. During the planting, each class took ownership over a fruit tree in the food forest, and has been diligently watering the trees and watching them grow. OVERCOMING THE DRY SEASON: Water was a big challenge as everything was implemented during the dry season, and invasive chickens destroyed the garden over and over. We overcame these challenges with infrastructure (rain tanks & better fencing) but really the key was in working 18
together with the school &inspiring more commitment from the educators. The more established the system became, the easier it was to get buy-in from the school. COMMUNITY RECOGNITION: Community volunteers are coming to work in the garden and there has been recognition from the local district and education circuit officers as well as the Agriculture Office. Also, the garden is very visible to the immediate community, people are constantly walking by, and they have seen the progression over this past year. Now they are saying ‘looks beautiful!’ and ‘wow – so pretty!’ This garden has potential to change the way the local community sees food production and school gardens – and could ripple outward to affect change in the region.
OUR PROGRAMMES Next Steps: The school would like to get chickens, and establish a nursery for seedling production for their own garden as well as to sell plants to the local community. The school would like to expand production to the opposite side of the school to have more produce to incorporate into the feeding scheme, and wants to plant more of a fruit orchard and windbreak around the kitchen area
From our Partners: “That first meeting we had with SEED I was feeling so scared to go into the garden, but now I am going there every day. My learners water their trees and pick weeds, now I find I am hoping for rain for the garden, and wanting our plants to grow big.”
Joseph, Grade 4 Educator
“I have learned so much about protecting the soil, and about diversity. We had some months back a workshop about biodiversity given by the district but it was all theory. I did not get what it meant. But here in the garden I am seeing it. We are growing so many different kinds of foods and herbs here now.”
Patricia, Headmaster
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OUR PROGRAMMES Bathabile Primary Northern Johannesburg
Green Practice Summary: The garden space and school continues to grow and thrive, the commitment and dedication of the school, staff, and educators is inspiring as they have risen above huge social and financial challenges to create a sustainable and abundant system that has changed their lives and is a positive influence on their learners and school. Bathabile is producing incredible amounts of food to feed 950 learners three times a week, and is becoming a true model school for this program.
Year Highlights: BOOST IN PERMACULTURE SKILLS TRAINING: This has had a big impact! The ground staff has received ongoing Permaculture mentoring, one ground staff attended the Accredited Permaculture Training in Cape Town and a group of educators participated in SEED 5-Day course in Permaculture Education. These educators have taken on management and design of a section of the school garden. As a school, Bathabile now has a strong core of dedicated Permaculture staff. Curriculum Integration: There is a team of five educators that are out in the garden doing lessons regularly, on SEED and non-SEED days. Ground staff Oupa, empowered by participation in SEED training courses, assists in doing lessons in mother tongue, which is encouraging as English is a challenge here. Nutrition: The Bathabile kitchen ladies harvest every day – this is a regular and key part of school meals. Lots of food is coming out of the garden and all of it goes into the feeding scheme. Permaculture Systems: The introduction of chickens into the garden and their movable chicken tractor homes has been great as both a teach-
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ing tool as well as to boost garden fertility. Worm farms are also in full operation, making effective use of recycling kitchen waste into useful compost for the garden. Windbreak trees are growing tall and strong and forming a solid green belt around the school.
Next Steps: Nutrition education for the kitchen ladies to ensure appropriate and nutritious incorporation of vegetables into school meals is planned. Scales and books to quantify what the garden is producing. Addressing the need for food storage – a refrigerator or freezer – there is often too much produce to use and Bathabile really needs a way to preserve their harvested food. To handover complete ownership of the SEED program into the school’s hands over the next year – there is no doubt this school garden system will thrive far into the future.
OUR PROGRAMMES Testimonials from our partners: “Hungry children cannot work or learn and they do not have food at home, so we must make sure that they are fed healthy food here at school”
Mr. Kotu, school headmaster
“We don’t rest because then the garden would die… I just want this garden to grow!”
Oupa, School SEED Champion
” Tina, we have chickens- that are already laying eggs and going to feed the soil for us, we are so happy about this!”
Martha, HOD Garden Manager
“Ever since those teachers went on the 5-day workshop everyone wants to have a part in the garden. The learners too are taking it home. Always in the morning they are in the garden. They are there willingly and want to be there. This is a real part of their learning now.”
Martha, Educator
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OUR PROGRAMMES Sefeking Primary Leeuwkop Prison Johannesburg
Green Practice
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Summary:
Year Highlights:
After working with the school for the past two years, the school has found its SEED champion and it has transformed the whole space. The garden is producing food consistently and is working on a more sustainable basis than it ever has before. The champion is a community volunteer who is assisting in the garden and generating income from vegetable sale. He is very keen to learn more about Permaculture and his presence is helping the school to maintain their garden, and to strengthen the link with the educators who come out to the garden.
Curriculum Integration: Grade 6 and Grade 4 are in the garden regularly for their EMS lessons, and Grade 7 continues to participate in the regular garden rhythms. The older grades are committed to growing the garden and have developed a sense of ownership over the last two years, this is help and the space is used for learning. Permaculture Systems: The food forest has grown a lot, boosted by compost and thick mulch; it is full of herbs and all the fruit trees are thriving. We have started a nursery, using recycled desks for planting trays. We have also built a kitchen shade structure so there is a shaded cool space to prepare vegetables & kids can eat in the shade.
OUR PROGRAMMES Also we have brought in a solar cooker to heat water for the kitchen. Very nice to see that the garden is established enough that it is re-seeding itself, and the school has been working on saving seed. There are plans for a school market to help generate income and to provide seed and seedlings to the community to support their household gardens. Nutrition: Kitchen ladies come to harvest spinach from the garden, along with onions, cabbage, beetroot; beans will get brought to the kitchen when they are ready.
Goals for Next Year: Develop a school market on Fridays to sell garden produce and products to the local community. The grade 6 EMS class did a market research education activity with the local community and determined that seed and seedlings could also be sold at this market. The market would link with the curriculum and be guided by the EMS class. Do a kitchen workshop on food and nutrition – how to wisely incorporate garden produce into meals. Would also be great to bring the tuck shop ladies in to a nutrition workshop to get them to maybe bring in healthier foods.
From our Partners: “I find that our slow learners get a lot of benefit from hands-on learning in the garden - in NS we teach monocotyledons and dicotyledons. In class they will not understand, yet if I show them in the garden they grasp the concept and learning is made easier!”
Mme Kasha, Grade 7 Natural Science Educator
“This garden has been an eye-opener for me to see the value of learners studying things hands on. The school benefits with nutrition as kids do eat vegetables. And they are fresh & natural – no chemicals. The garden beautifies the place all around.”
Mr. Mogale, School Principal
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OUR PROGRAMMES Nottingham Road Combined School Kwa Zulu
Green Practice Summary: Since the beginning of the SEED program in KZN there have been lots of radical changes in the school landscape, from installing water tanks, fencing off areas of environmental vulnerability, creating colorful and diverse gardens with flowers, fruit trees, vegetables and herbs. The most rewarding shift has been the attitude of educators and learners towards nature. Learners no longer tread on plants but carefully keep on the paths and make sure that other learners do the same. They carefully handle insects, water with care and mulch everything without having to be asked to. They know the names of a big variety of plants and more importantly what those plants can be used for. Helping learners to be more sensitive to their environment and to activate curiosity about the wonders of the natural world is by far the most rewarding aspect.
Year highlights: Feeding the Learners: Lots of garden produce is used in the school meals. The school provides approximately 300 feeding scheme meals per day and fresh produce is harvested twice per week and supplements this. Learners from the Seedling club also harvest and produce is given to the children who assist in the garden during breaks and lunch and these are children who need the extra food to bring home. Some of these children are from child headed households and some from households where the adults are unemployed. Ownership: Ownership is being built by getting the SEED Seedling Club environment kids involved, and by identifying certain natural leaders in Grade 6 & 8 that have emerged who are passionate about the gardens. Through this, new educators have shown passion and enthusiasm. The children involved are entrusted with garden and eco-room keys and take their responsibility very seriously and are motivating the other learners to get more involved. 24
OUR PROGRAMMES Medicinal Herb Processing: Some favorite lessons and activities have included herb harvesting and processing with learners who planted the herbs the first year. Everybody LOVED this and we made bath salts, teas, soap, and cough syrups and had seeds for sale to educators and parents. Fencing & Design: By fencing the most vulnerable areas in the past two years - gardens, wetlands, tree windbreaks and outdoor classroom - we have focused the flow of people around the school and enabled the systems that have been put in place to thrive. Before SEED engaged in partnership with the school there was chaos in the grounds with people walking, running and driving all over the place and now there is far more structure and flow. Outdoor Classroom: Grade 4, 5 & 6 have been utilizing the outdoor classroom and gardens at least once a week and Grade 7, 8 & 9 are involved and engaged on a regular basis. The Outdoor Classroom is also used as a safe space for learners waiting for taxis and as a tuckshop at break.
Next steps: Goals for next year are to increase the diversity of crops and intensify the yield. Processing for optimum food production and the introduction of more unusual food and healthier ways of cooking to improve the school diet. The children have discovered the joys of eating from the garden- nibbling lettuce, crunching peas and eating cherry tomatoes. This is a complete joy to watch! This school needs a stronger planting schedule for next year so that it can begin the process of taking full responsibility for its own program. The water systems need further work and more resources need to be grown on site at the school (mulch, plants, seedlings) to supplement the existing systems.
From our partners: “The gardens really benefit the community of our school because we eat these vegetables and this improves our learners health status and helps develop them academically. The learners have learnt different methods of planting and gardening and have been introduced to new terminology that has helped them”
Mr. Ngubane, Grade4-6 English & Maths educator “There have been great changes at our school. It looks distinctly different to other schools in our area. It looks beautiful. We’ve benefited from learning about herbs and vegetable growing and tree planting and the learners are interested in learning from the environment”
Mrs. Jaca, Grade 7-9 25
OUR PROGRAMMES Zoar E K Primary Zoar, Ladismith Klein Karoo
Green Beginnings Summary: As the first SEED school in the region, Zoar has been a pioneering project in the area. We have built an area-specific outdoor classroom that has become a central point for SEED lessons and a coveted outside space for eating lunch and other gatherings. Other than the weekly seed classes, teachers have started teaching other subjects (i.e. maths, languages, etc) outside in the outdoor classroom. Pupils are excited and rejuvenated by the outdoor classroom classes. The limited growing space of the school has led us to concentrate on establishing a diverse and indigenous windbreak of over 130 trees, and to grow vegetables in growing boxes in front of the classrooms.
Highlights: CURRICULUM INTEGRATION: Every Friday is a SEED day at the school and all the classes from Grade 3 – 6 come to the outdoor classroom with their teachers. Teachers bring the pupils out to do math, languages or reading classes in the outdoor classroom on other days, everyone loves being there. A group of 14 Grade 3’s make up the seedling club who are the environmental activists of the school. NUTRITION: All garden produce is added to the learner’s daily meal of samp, soya, rice and bread. PERMACULTURE SYSTEMS: Roof space water harvesting – gallons of storm water used to run down the gutter onto a paved parking lot; instead the guttering system has been adjusted and a 5000ltr rainwater roof catchment tank has been installed. The overflow is caught via swale system and deposited into the net and pan system. Erosion control – water is now directed with swales and harvested into a net and pan system covering the once depleted embankment.
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OUR PROGRAMMES Recycling station – Zoar is known for strong winds and we have a constant battle with empty litter flying about. Pupils and teachers are happy and supportive of the new system.
From our partners: “The learners are now hands-on with some of the natural science lessons and understand the impact of the environment to our lives much better.”
Mrs. Christel, Deputy Principal Johannes “The project has awakened a sense of care within the kids. It has also improved school pride amongst them.”
Mr. Zeeland Malan, Groundsman “It helped the learners reaching the outcomes of Natural Science by the practical and physical nature of the SEED lessons, which they can then easily remember.”
Mr. Neville Matthee, Grade 4&5 Natural Science and Math Educator “There is no more messing and wasting of water on the school grounds and the learners have become very conscious thereof. Their skills sharpened a lot and they now have the ability to see what’s going on around them and in the natural environment.”
Mrs. Rebecca Heradien, Grade 3 “Learner involvement improved dramatically and they accept ownership of the SEED project. They engage themselves in the SEED activities, which have improved their skills tremendously.”
Mr. Winston Opperman, Grade 6 Educator and Principal “The SEED program is helping learners improve their abilities and skills and it also established school pride and awareness of nature and the environment. SEED lessons are well prepared and relevant with the planning of the curriculum”.
Mr. Gordon Rooi, Grade 4
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OUR PROGRAMMES Duneside Primary Mitchells Plain CAPE FLATS
Green Beginnings Summary “I feel that we are really making a difference in children’s lives. At first I was quite shocked when some learners thought that carrots and potatoes grew on trees. It has taken me a long time to name and identify indigenous plants. Now my learners can identify every indigenous plant we have planted after only one year, as well as the basics like carrots and potatoes.” Bood Carver, SEED Facilitator
Highlights Learners have used what they have learned to start their own gardens at home. They have been asked to photograph and record their harvests. Some parents sit in on lessons and share information and resources. Community members often bring kitchen waste to feed the earthworms or to throw it in the compost heap or pit beds. Learners are responsible for daily activities like weeding and collecting snails. The Feeding scheme cooks harvest salads and seasonal vegetables on a weekly basis. Two educators are responsible for managing garden tasks like preparing new beds and watering. Learners have used what they have learned to start their own gardens at home. They have been asked to photograph and record their harvests. Some parents sit in on lessons and share information and resources. Curriculum Activities: Learners and educators often use the outdoor classroom as a teaching resource. Mr. Zimri is a champion garden teacher in Grade 7 as are Mrs. Njenge (Grade 4) Mr. Msipa and Mr. Mvuti, (Grade 6). One of our favorite lessons, with the younger learners, Grade 1 to 3 is the herb identification lesson, using only the senses of touch, taste and 28
smell. By the end of the lesson, most of the children could tell the difference between lavender, rosemary, thyme, sage and basil without even looking at it. The biodiversity lesson at Silvermine was rewarding and educational. Some of the learners experienced a natural environment for the first time, with sightings of tortoises, snakes and birds as well as the fynbos. Nutrition: We have had great harvests of giant turnips, spinach, cabbage, lettuce, celery and herbs. We are still expecting a good yield of potatoes, tomatoes, mielies, squash, melons cucumbers, brinjals, broccoli, cauliflower and beans. Vegetables are harvested weekly to supplement the feeding scheme. Fresh vegetables are added to soups, soya and lentils.
OUR PROGRAMMES Permaculture Systems: The design of Duneside’s garden was implemented to enhance the natural beauty already prevalent in the school. Tucked away next to a large sand dune, there is a thin layer of fertile soil and some large trees and shrubs. The food forest with carobs, olives, figs, citrus and mulberry trees work well outside the staff room window, with a medicinal and culinary herb border lining the access path from the car park. The additional building of the shaded trellis benefited the garden by providing a structure for climbing plants and allowing for a microclimate to grow more diverse and sensitive plant species. Strong winds and fast growing kweek grass were a challenge. We dug sunken trench beds to solve both the fertility and wind problem. The trenches were one meter deep, lined with recycled cardboard and filled with horse manure and kitchen waste compost. The results were incredible. We cut and dried out large quantities of long grass and turned it into mulch, a valuable resource. We hired a wood chipper for a day to turn garden pruning’s into mulch for paths, which were sheet mulched with recycled newspaper to stop the spread of grass into the vegetable beds.
Next Steps There is a big need at Duneside to feed learners, we plan to boost the food gardens next year and really begin to feed the whole school. Duneside has a vast property with fairly good soil. It is quite possible to produce large quantities of food for the soup kitchen and the broader community. The school has expressed interest in farming chickens and goats, but first provisions would have to be made for a dedicated animal caretaker.
From our Partners “SEED has helped the teachers and learners in that some of the topics in that learning areas are taught practically. The community has learned and improved their own gardens by learning from SEED.”
Mr. R Muvuti, Grade 6 Educator
“The program is educational in abundance. Teachers and Learners benefit much from the program. It creates an inspiring learning environment for all learning areas. Learners enjoy learning in an outside learning environment with a beautiful lookout. Green all over the yard brings life.”
Mr. Msipa, Grade 6 Educator
“Its not just a vision for our school, it’s a vision for our world. The vision is not just for a school garden, but to replicate this in the community, to empower the learners to become ambassadors for the environment. We have to be passionate about teaching, be creative & innovative & pragmatic – like in the garden. Especially for children whose home environment is tough, the social fabric is not there, does not have the same stability of a solid home… & that is 50% of my learners.”
Cliff Chateaut
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OUR PROGRAMMES Kairos Primary Mitchells Plain CAPE FLATS
Green Beginnings Summary: Bood, has done an amazing job at this school – the system implemented is truly a transformation, and the school is really putting in equal effort to support the infrastructure and maintenance of the system. All around it seems there is a desire for more integration of outdoor classroom and garden lessons with more of the school. The principal is in full support of this and she can be useful to motivate other teachers. An all staff SEED meeting could reignite excitement and to welcome again the entire education team to become involved in the program From speaking to Mr. Botha, he seems aware that he has somewhat ‘hoarded’ the SEED program, and knows he needs to let others share in the experience.
Highlights: Learners have used what they have learned to start their own gardens at home. They have been asked to photograph and record their harvests. Some parents work at nearby community gardens. They sit in on lessons and share information and resources. The garden was designed to become an entrance to the school. Parents collecting their children walk through the shaded trellis and past the herb gardens. Parents and learners feed the earthworms, pit beds and compost with kitchen waste as they arrive at school in the morning. Curriculum Activities: Mr. Botha and Mr. Olifant are our leading Outdoor Classroom teachers.My favorite lesson was on water management, because we had so many options to choose from. We implemented and calculated the volume collected in the rain tank, as well as the grey water banana pit beds, pit beds, trench beds, gutter run off and underground water. We started on the roof and ended up underground. 30
Nutrition: Vegetables are harvested daily supplement the feeding scheme. Permaculture Systems: The environment is not conducive to plant growth. Strong winds and dry white sand with no organic matter in it were a challenge. We dug sunken trench beds to solve both the fertility and wind problem. We reinforced the sides with timber to reduce the amount of sand being blown into beds. The trenches were one meter deep, lined with recycled cardboard and filled almost to the top with horse manure and kitchen waste compost. The results were incredible and surplus spinach, not being used by the school kitchen, is being sold to teachers and parents to buy more seedlings.
OUR PROGRAMMES Water. We have used every opportunity to catch, store and use water with tanks, run off, grey water, pit beds, trench beds, municipal and ground water. We spent some time fixing existing fascia boards and guttering with the learners. We made a video of this work. Trench beds. The boost to fertility is enormous. We had a good yield of healthy vegetables, despite the wind and gravelly sand.
Next Steps Feeding learners is a priority – this will become easier as our perennial systems become more established and the growing climate is gentler. We want to work on education with more teachers. The Outdoor Classroom will also become a softer place as the perennial system establishes and sun and wind are moderated.
From our Partners “Our school is a perfect demonstration that you can do a garden anywhere. Bood and the volunteers have such positive attitudes, the children love them. I am so touched by the children’s involvement – this exposes them to gardening & green & life which is something they don’t get at home – only sand, no greenery, no trees. Here the children walk and get the smell of celery… they see bees feeding in the flowers. And the skills too! This won’t stop here – they will take this to their homes and do their own gardens and maybe these children will someday make a living this way.”
Milicent Abrams, Prinicipal “This whole approach is new to me & I see the benefit – to the learners & to everyone. When Bood is here I learn so much – I forget that I am a teacher! I am right there learning with the students.”
Nic Botha, Educator
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OUR PROGRAMMES Springdale Primary Mitchells Plain CAPE FLATS
Green Beginnings Summary: Springdale is a model Seed school. The teachers, ground staff, principal, learners, parents and soup kitchen chefs are all 100% involved in the garden, education and the Seed Program. Lungi is a parent, who is employed full time by the school to tend to the garden, which existed before the Seed partnership and who now also tends the expanded Seed/Springdale garden. Every pupil or group who planted a tree or vegetable has tended it, watered it by hand on a daily basis and because of this dedication, the garden is flourishing. Learners regularly bring kitchen waste for the 3 worm farms and the banana pit.
Highlights: Feast: Our end of year harvest feast was facilitated by Bood Carver from Seed, Ana Isa, a volunteer from Guatemala and Valerie, a volunteer from Germany. We made a vegetable stew from the 32
garden to feed over 50 learners while learning to speak a few words in Spanish and German. Later in the day, a celebrity chef, Fernando Rodrigez De la Fuente (otherwise known as Chili con Carne) joined the celebration and there was dancing and singing. (See photos) Curriculum: “There have been many favorite lessons, but one of my most favorite was when we were doing manual pest management and picking big green caterpillars off the cabbage leaves. I was worried that they would be too scared to pick them up. I was wrong. They loved the caterpillars. The grade 4 pupils each filled their own can with leaves and caterpillars and at the end of the lesson, begged me to let them take them home to show their parents and hatch them into butterflies. I’m sure their mothers were delighted.” Bood Carver, SEED Facilitator.
OUR PROGRAMMES Permaculture: We are proud of the fertility and yields we have managed to get out of one of the sandiest and windiest schools in the Cape Flats. In addition to putting in rain tanks, worm farms, outdoor classrooms, fruit trees and windbreaks we added a few elements to the design to help with certain challenges. These were a 10m trellis, which is 2m high and 2m wide, trench beds with wind berms and a tire table mountain, planted with indigenous plants. The school has an existing vegetable garden, surrounded by some wind swept shade cloth, a full time gardener and some very dedicated Educators and learners. When I asked the school to build a plinth for the rain tank it was completed in a week. Curriculum Activities: At Springdale there are 3 or 4 Seed lessons every SEED day. All the teachers from Grade 4 to 6 take turns in coming to the garden The teachers: Mrs. Brown, Mrs. Kaye, Mrs. Schippers, Mrs. Julius, Mr. Van Reenen and Mrs. Fritz are regulars in the garden. Nutrition: Lungi, who works in the garden, harvests with the help of learners or Gaynor and Katy, the Soup Kitchen chefs who have become garden gourmets. This year we have harvested about 10 kg or two milk crates of turnips, about two shopping bags of spinach a week, about 20 heads of lettuce, 20 broccoli, 100 green peppers, 5 pumpkins, daily strawberries, 10kgs potatoes, 20 mielies. Herbs like coriander, basil, rosemary, marjoram, enough to pick daily. We have still to harvest a bed of carrots, tomatoes, onions, leeks, cabbage, maize, broccoli, squash, and pumpkins.
Permaculture Systems: The two biggest challenges at Springdale are the wind and the infertile sand under some large eucalyptus trees. The building of a trellis was an immediate windbreak, which acts as a structure for climbing plants, and as a shade and shelterbelt. The fertility of the soil and the wind problem were solved by some landscaping efforts. In order to build planters under the eucalyptus trees, where the ground is infertile and the wind 33
OUR PROGRAMMES is very strong, we built a smaller version of Table Mountain out of tires and fill them with sand and compost and planted indigenous windbreaks. Mrs. Schippers, a grade 4 teacher delivered hundreds of tires to the school. We needed tons of sand to fill the tires and this was achieved by digging long, deep trenches, which were then filled with about 20 bakkie loads of horse manure. These became very fertile trench beds, which were slightly sunken and edged with timber boards. Excess sand (not used in the tires) was piled on the windy side of the trench beds to act as an extra windbreak. These long hills were also edged with timber as a retaining wall and planted with green manures and as mulch banks. Thus we turned a flat, windy, barren landscape into a sheltered and fertile one with hills and valleys.
Next Steps: The trench beds have provided bountiful harvests of leaf and fruiting vegetables, but are almost too nitrogen rich for root vegetables. Next year we will plant carrots and potatoes in the sandy wind berms to see if this increases yield. The hard work we put in loading horse manure and compost a meter deep in the trench beds should provide vegetables with enough nutrients for many years to come. We would like to arrange tours for other schools to visit Springdale before they join the Seed program, so that they can understand how it should work and exactly what is required of them in the partnership. We aim to plant a forest of at least 50 trees on the Eastern side of the school. Some of these have already been sourced and donated.
From our Partners : “ The benefits from the partnership, started with the resources, assistance and help we received from SEED to realize our own goals. The visible changes are great. Look at our outdoor classroom, our water tank, trellis and the new layout of the whole area. The children are so enthusiastic and can’t wait for a Thursday to see Bood in the Seed bakkie, full of plants. Even on other days, when Bood is not here, you will have children asking what they can do in the garden. The educators found a lot of excitement in the project. Myself, Mrs. Kaye and Mrs. Schippers organized extra baths for worm farms, tires and compost. Everyone is 100% behind the project and we are all able and capable to make change. The growth and change has brought great pride to us. Great pride. There was a lot of learning taking place in all the different learning areas of the curriculum, so that goal was definitely achieved and is ongoing.”
Mrs. M Adams Grade 1 Educator 34
OUR PROGRAMMES Westville Primary Mitchells Plain
Green Beginnings
Summary The fact that Seed had already been to Westville, meant that the perennial systems were already well developed. There was a free-range chicken run, but the vegetable garden was badly neglected. The school was familiar with a gardening culture and some of the teachers and ground staff have a good knowledge of plants. I redesigned the garden to make use of the shelterbelts and available shade for the classroom. I built a 10m trellis as a windbreak for the fruit trees, as a structure for climbing plants and as a grand entrance to the outdoor classroom and garden. This has worked well as a microclimate installation and the vegetation and garden aesthetic has improved because of it. Because Westville already had 3 rain tanks and a water pump, I decided to spend the time and budget on a chicken tractor system to improve fertility in the garden. The hens in the
tractor (“Five star chicken Hotel”) have settled in and are laying eggs. We move the position of the tractor every 3 weeks and plant straight into the new bed most recently fertilized by the chickens.
Highlights Curriculum: One of my favorite and most memorable lessons this year was the lesson on chickens. We discussed all the inputs and outputs of chicken farming and then I showed the class (Gr. 4) the chicken tractor I had made and placed in the garden without their prior knowledge. I had been telling them for weeks about my “5 star chicken hotel” with 2 floors and its own gutters and rain tank. They were so amazed and delighted that it really made the hard work feel worth it. We then painted a big sign on the side of the chicken tractor, saying,” 5 star chicken hotel”. 35
OUR PROGRAMMES Community: One of the school caretakers, Mr. Davids is also an herbalist who harvests nettles and indigenous herbs from the garden to make medicines for the community. I have got to know many community members around the school, who take an interest in the garden and share insights and information with me. Some community members have come to the seed office to read up information in the library. The outdoor classroom is frequented by learners daily as a shady lunch spot. The chickens are also a great source of entertainment, as are the tortoise and the rabbit. The community is very connected to the garden in that they throw food scraps to the chickens, take plant cuttings and often buy compost for their own gardens from Seed. They look directly onto the school and garden, so also act as an extra security measure. Curriculum Activities: Learners and educators from grade 1 to 5 frequently use the garden and outdoor classroom for various lessons and activities. We have seen reading classes, living science classes, arts and culture practice and Physical education classes being delivered in the garden and outdoor classroom on a weekly basis. The other favorite lesson was our biodiversity trip to Silvermine where a Westville parent came with her 2-month-old baby, as well as the baby’s granny and 55 learners from grade 5 to 7. The baby was carefully carried by about 20 girls taking turns, and slept throughout the hour-long walk. It was the quietest walk, where the children listened to the sounds of the river and saw multitudes of birds, lizards, frogs and a tortoise Nutrition: Sharon from the school soup kitchen, harvest vegetables on a weekly basis to supplement the feeding scheme. They have already used about 2 milk crates of harvested turnips in the lentil soup with rice. They have harvested 20 heads of lettuce since September to use as salads with sandwiches and pilchards. About 10kg of spinach have been added to the lentil and soya soup meals since September and about 2 kg’s is harvested weekly. Carrots and beans are often washed and eaten as a snack after 36
OUR PROGRAMMES Seed lessons. When we harvested and cooked our year end feast with 50 Seed learners chosen from various classes, we fed all 50 learners with delicious vegetable stew made from potatoes, carrots, leeks, onions, spring onions, celery, parsley, rosemary, basil, coriander, cabbage, kale, broccoli and marrows all harvested fresh from the garden, washed and prepared by the learners. Vegetables still to be harvested later this year are tomatoes, mielies, beans, pumpkin and squash. Permaculture Systems: One of the implementation challenges when dealing with mulch, raised beds and children, is that the younger children or children in the garden for the first time sometimes can’t differentiate between the paths and the beds and walk all over the vegetables and seedlings. In order to overcome this challenge we worked extensively on pathways, by laying down newspaper to stop grass growing and covering it with woodchips from the pruned trees in the garden. We also surrounded each bed with permanent wooden borders, which fit perfectly inside the chicken tractor. These borders, give each bed a strong visual structure that makes it very obvious, which are vegetable beds and which are pathways.
Another challenge has been the large amount of stinging nettles growing in the garden. This meant that children could not harvest vegetables. This problem was overcome when I discovered that Mr. Davids, a caretaker, is also an herbalist who uses nettles in his medicines. Now he harvests the nettles before we work with the children. He also showed us that the roots of the nettles, if rubbed on the skin, reduce irritation from the sting.
Next Steps Next year we would like to work on more vegetable production, rotation, and stacking to increase yields and support more learners with fresh organic food. We would also like to introduce more snack plants like cherry tomatoes, gooseberries, strawberries and sweet peas. Nutrition would be greatly improved after 3 years when the grapes, olives, mulberries, figs and citrus are fruiting. We plan to kick start the nursery with community involvement. Seed is already so much part of this school and community’s culture. I would like to encourage this by facilitating lessons from the gardeners and herbalists in the community to pass on their learning to children by combining them with Seed lessons.
From our Partners “Below are the impacts SEED’s garden has on the School Learners Teaches the learners to respect natural resources and become knowledgeable. Excellent to have a garden at school. Part of the curriculum. Pride to be part of this school environment. Encourage Teamwork Community Creates hobbies Beautification of environment Entrepreneurial Skills developed Staff Empower gardeners Enrich our gardening knowledge and skills Rewarding Tool Thanking you”
Geraldine Theron, Grade 3 Educator 37
OUR PROGRAMMES Fezekha High School Gugulethu Cape Flats
Green Beginnings Summary: There has been a big realization from the school about the importance of the garden. They are now seeing it as a place of education and opportunity. The implementation of the Wind Turbine at the school has made the school a focal point in the area. The focus of this garden has been on education. It is amazing to see the transformation is high school children who were totally disinterested in gardening, who one they realized the potential have now come on board totally and are exploring quite advanced sustainable issues.
Highlights: The Wind Turbine : This is thanks to the inspiration and commitment of Andreas Pena Doll, a 19-year old student from Stanford University. Andreas designed and built (in collaboration with Peter Becker from windpower.org.za and Bood 38
from SEED) the wind turbines using scrap material. The project was educational and saw top science and technology students actively involved in the whole process. The turbines now power lights at Fezeka. Education: Learners approaching me in the passages or walkway, to ask me to help them about their lesson specifically if they see that they link in their School program. Changing learner’s mindset and negative attitude towards nature and the experience of them being part of something that they start and give a sense of responsibility. Once more educators got to hear from other Educators how interesting things work in our methods of establishing the garden, came to join my lessons and booked lessons. Community: The community members came and ask for the medicinal plants, they are finding the Wind turbine very interesting and are amazed how wind that is taken for granted plays such a vital role.
OUR PROGRAMMES Curriculum Activities: Outdoor Classroom Education has taken off – and our schedules are full. We have been working hang in glove with educators to deliver outcomes. We have built up a good committed teaching team. Being a high school, we are able to really explore concepts in depth. Grade 11 Social science, Life science, Business economics, life orientation, Grade 10 life science. Permaculture Systems: We have transformed a dry big patch in front of the school into a living environment. The garden now operates as an educational resource, food production area and a medicinal garden that is rekindling community memory and indigenous knowledge.
Next Steps: Now that the garden is established, a planting program will be followed where the caretakers are to grow food specifically for the soup kitchen. Possible community garden We look forward to developing a formal high school curriculum next year.
From our Partners “The environment became beautiful and is now looked after, the wind turbine was the revelation, the integration of the lessons help for the lessons to become more clear, i.e. in social science, growing your own food, Permaculture practices, ground water harvesting. ”
Phelisa Tofile Grade 11 Learner
“I thought that the garden was just a waste of time because all the time when we went there with my class for lessons I would make jokes and miss out a lot, but now I see how important it is to know and learn about the garden.”
Bonga, Grade 11 Learner
“I always wanted the garden at our school but I did not have the means and I got happy when seed arrived.”
Mphumzi Mahlomakulu Grade 11 Learner
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OUR PROGRAMMES Leiden Primary Mitchells Plain
Green Beginnings Summary: The transformation of the school grounds from the dry, hot desert, to a beautiful, shady garden is bringing life into the school. The children have a shaded area where they can sit and have lunch and more and more teachers are buying into the program and the resulting transformation.
Highlights: It was great to feast with the children at the end of the year because they got to grow some of their own food. It was great and rewarding that they experienced the full cycle from seed to plate. Also, the secretary, Nomvula Hans, was so inspired by what was happening in the garden that she has cleaned up her own back yard and is growing her own flowers and vegetables at home. The community has noticed a change in the school’s garden and how it involved everybody from the school. Many children have developed gardens at home and are feeding their families. Curriculum Activities: Educators are really on board at this school – the buy-in and support is amazing. They truly see the value not only of how the garden supports delivery of the curriculum but of other life skills & knowledge. We teach four lessons on every SEED day with Grades 4-7 classes. The teachers have their own garden-based timetable, which they use on non-SEED days. The Outdoor Classroom is used a lot for reading lessons and teachers claim that learners are better able to focus outside. One of my favorite lessons was measuring and pacing the garden. The learners got to see the 40
OUR PROGRAMMES beginning (of the process of implementing a garden) and the abundance that resulted since then. The Windbreak lesson was very interesting because some knew the Xhosa and Afrikaans name of the plants. They loved learning that the plants have a name, surname and nickname and belong to a family just like them. Nutrition: There has been very little to harvest at the moment because of water issues. The ground water is too saline for vegetables, so they were slightly stunted and need plenty of fresh water to wash away the salts. Next year the vegetables must be watered separately (with municipal water) from the Windbreaks the Principal and Educators are planning to work in the garden where the children would grow vegetables to eat. Permaculture Systems: The system is sweet and small and seems appropriate to water and soil considerations. Eventually it would be great to build out from this garden (there is plenty of space!) but first this space would need to be solidly established in terms of water and fertility. School has ABSOLUTELY taken ownership over the garden and are tending to it with care & attention and that is due to your solid commitment & great communication skills. Our challenge was with water. We installed a well point and pump, which makes use of ground water, and for some reason the water below Leiden is salty. This has resulted in vegetables not producing any food.
Next Steps: The building of the nursery will help them generate income for unemployed community members, who are very excited about the idea. This school is acknowledging this program’s value. This can be built on next year because they want to support the change they see in their school and see the value in it for the learners.
From our Partners: “The garden is working against absenteeism. It makes the learners feel part & parcel of the school, makes them want to come. We see much involvement of the young ones. Watering, looking – they are learning & it is fun for them.”
Mangcoto Chris, Principal
“The learners have never been to rural areas or farms. For food they have only seen the ready-made product. Here they pull food out of the ground.”
Mr. Magida, Educator
“The learners have been directly involved from the start – the garden was designed by them! With the learning areas doing things hands-on is essential. When you do it practically you learn more easily.” Mr. Vanderkorf
The perennial systems are thriving. Fertility is very low, and we are working on various strategies to address this: making compost from the school feeding scheme, bringing in loads of free horse manure, planting loads of dynamic accumulators and mulching heavily.
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OUR PROGRAMMES Seaview Primary Mitchells Plain
Green Beginnings
Summary: The garden has been implemented in the area that has been fenced. We are proud to be involved in the development of change and for the school to see their skeleton garden come alive.
Highlights: “The learners were taken for an outing to a farm. When they saw it, they could relate that into what they are doing in the school�. Mrs. Abrahams grade 5 Educator. Mrs. Janab Abrahams the cleaning lady at the school said that the feasts that we did encouraged 42
her to cook healthier food. She now feels comfortable cooking without meat. She was telling us that it feels good for her digestive system and will do it more often. She learned a lot abut medicinal plants and helps her neighbors by taking some medicine from the garden of which she is receiving good feedback The school is involved with community. George Daniels, a pensioner, is helping the school and volunteers his time in the garden. Curriculum Activities: This was challenging in the beginning. The Educators would disappear from the garden. Teachers now book lessons on the SEED day and we have a weekly environmental educators check-in.
OUR PROGRAMMES We now deliver at least 4 classes per SEED day, with lessons alternating across all Grades from 3-7. The Educational Sign lesson which Mr. Le Roux, a grade 7 Educator, incorporated in his English lesson, and was one of our favorites. He did some of his oral assessments in the garden. The learners being assessed had to discuss the challenges we had around the outdoor classroom. The class put together ideas, made a sign, painted it, and gathered resources to protect plants to help them to grow in a more protected environment. Nutrition: As soon as the first vegetables were ready, we invited the soup kitchen ladies to harvest them for vegetable soup for hungry learners. The other big harvest we had was for the school feast for 50 learners. It was exciting and educational for them to use the vegetables that they planted. Permaculture Systems: The soil is pure beach sand. Fertility was a big focus and something we put a lot of energy into before planting anything. To increase fertility, learners are bringing a lot of kitchen waste, and we are bringing in horse manure, which helps a lot. The vegetables that we grew this year were rich and green. Credit can be given to the horses for their manure.
Next Steps: Five Day Training for community gardeners and caretakers. The Educators are suggesting that on our timetable, should run from one level to the next so that all the classes get to have the opportunity to go the garden. They are asking us to work with every class in the school so that learners all have an opportunity to benefit from the program.
From our Partners: “The trees grown will benefit us with oxygen.” Roxanne Groepies. “ It also helped us to learn more about gardening.”
Considerate Magwezi
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OUR PROGRAMMES Sokhanyo Primary Gugulethu
Green Beginnings
Highlights “The outdoor classroom is a place to gather and give confidence to children. They experiment, participate fully and find comfort. Permaculture creates a space where children can learn without boundaries. It is amazing for them to develop something that they see slowly unfold and become the end product. It builds on their development as individuals.� Yoliswa Mahobe, Seed Facilitator Curriculum Activities: SEED has worked with all classes from Grade 5-9. There are a number of children that are part of the scouts who know about the garden. The interaction with us in the garden emphasized their previous learning and made them want to work harder and share information. 44
Medicinal Plants was my favorite lesson because it tapped into an already existing broad base of knowledge. Most children have some exposure to medicinal plants through their mothers or grandmothers and we had lively debate. Nutrition: Produce is harvested and cooked in a daily soup for hungry learners. Permaculture Systems: There was an existing food garden at Sokhayno and we incorporated this into a Permaculture design. We built an Outdoor Classroom and installed rain tanks, worm farms, indigenous windbreaks, food forests. We also initiated on-ground fertility by getting the compost systems thumping.
OUR PROGRAMMES Next Steps: The garden is very beautiful and abundant. The caretaker will care for the garden because he is passionate about it and, over the year, has built up a good skills base.
From our Partners: “Projects like this help our youth to develop and learn life skills. It is nice when it involves them so that they can expose the learners to different environments and to get them off the street corners. They will find out about career opportunities.”
Ms. Hangana
“The garden helps the children a lot and they start to grow their own food at home.”
Mr. Fitoli
“They are finding out that they can grow a lot of plants in a small space because of companion planting and intercropping.”
Sharpman, Caretaker
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OUR PROGRAMMES Alpine Primary Mitchells Plain
Green Practice Summary: Most teachers use the Outdoor Classroom to deliver their lessons and use the garden as a living laboratory for teaching. Everybody in the school expresses their appreciation of the beautiful system. Learners, teachers and care-takers assist in watering and looking after this garden.
Highlights: Some community members have expressed to the principal how they love to look at the schools beautiful garden when the pass by the school with a bus to and from work, this beauty has brought joy in many people’s hearts. Our Favorite lessons this year: 1. Chicken lesson & building chicken tractor 2. Fertility lesson & setting up a liquid manure farm 3. Medicinal plants (story telling) & planting of herbs 4. Water 46
CURRICULUM: The Outdoor Classroom is used by the whole of Grade 4,5,6 and 7. Mrs. Peterson is a real teaching champion. NUTRITION: The school’s feeding scheme harvests vegetables every week to use in the school’s soap kitchen. The surplus vegetables are sold, and the money is used to support the garden. PERMACULTURE: The circular shape design of this garden makes it very unique and special. The vegetable beds produce massive vegetables. The chicken tractor that is helping adds fertility to the
OUR PROGRAMMES system. The planting of windbreaks, which protect the garden from strong winds, especially this garden is exposed to the North Easterly winds. Planting herbs and fruit trees that are starting to grow bigger and planting of vegetables, which support the feeding scheme of the school. We have also sorted the irrigation system and put up liquid manure drums to support the fertility of the soil.
Next steps We plan to strengthen the worm farm and believe this could become a business for the school.
From our partners “ The most obvious benefit is that children became aware of the environment, as they grow up they are not thought how to care for plants. This program helps to bring that learning and knowledge. Every morning when I come to the school, I always find a learner called Oswald sitting in the Outdoor classroom in the garden. He is 17 and he is a grade 7 learners. Oswald has learning difficulties and the garden creates a safe, restful and therapeutic space. The garden also helps to attract animals in the school, like birds, lizards, etc. Everybody in the school respect the garden. Some vegetables are taken to the school kitchen and some sold to support the garden. It has helped to improve nutrition. It has beautified the school.�
Mr. Carels, Educator
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OUR PROGRAMMES Hillside Primary Mitchells Plain
Green Practice Highlights: In this school there is an amazing learner called Winston, he has started his vegetable garden at home. In his garden has harvested spinach, cabbage, carrots, beetroot, tomatoes and broccoli. He hope one day he will own a big farm where he can plant various vegetable and have animals. CURRICULUM: Teachers from Grade 3-7 regularly use the Outdoor Classroom to teach garden-based lessons. Our favorite lessons this year: 1. Installation of tunnels & vegetable production lesson 2. Fertility lesson & setting up a liquid manure farm 3. Medicinal plants (story telling) & planting of herbs 4. Setting of worm farm (later was not functional) 5. Water and installation of irrigation 6. Pest management & garden pest hunting NUTRITION: Mrs. Baker and the gardener, Ms Lucia, harvest the vegetables and supply the school’s feeding scheme. The surplus vegetables are sold to pay the gardener. PERMACULTURE: With the perennial systems established, we were able to concentrate on food gardens. This began with the installation of vegetable tunnels that create a microclimate, which help in growing vegetables. Making vegetable beds, this involves shaping, adding compost, mulching and planting vegetables. There has been a big focus on fertility, with worm farms, manure teas and compost being key.
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Next steps We plan to implement highly productive food systems next year. Establish proper working composting area. Optimize the use of the tunnels. Check the feasibility of introducing chickens
OUR PROGRAMMES From our partners : “I loved the food that was cooked in the kitchen by Auntie Annie using our garden’s vegetables. It was oh so delicious.”
Cameron, Grade 6
“At our school we have a great amount of needy children – over 100 don’t pay school fees, have no money, no lunch, don’t have a full school uniform. We know their parents are unemployed, and here is the only place for them to get a full meal. The vegetables that go into that food are really benefitting especially these children. And the garden itself – how many children come from a home where they don’t ever see a flower?”
Fadila Arifti, Educator
“My learners enjoyed working in the garden as well as receiving the reading lessons in the outdoor classrooms at the end of the day. I have the pleasure of teaching in nature in peaceful surroundings. Cannot wait for our trees to be a bit taller.”
Ms D Gideos, Educator
“Our learners enjoy the outdoor classrooms where they don’t only learn valuable lessons, but they also enjoy the relaxation that goes with being outside in nature. Our learners are enriched with knowledge and skills and also benefit nutritionally from our food garden. The learners lean to be more responsible, because they have to take care of the garden and the surroundings in nature. They learn that they have a responsibility towards the sustenance of the environment, the eco systems, the animals, nature and ultimately the earth. BRAVO TO SEED AND THANK YOU.”
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OUR PROGRAMMES Iqayiha High School Gugulethu
Green Practice
Highlights In this school there is an amazing learners called Anele, he goes to the garden on weekend and holidays especially to water the plants. After school he helps the community members that are working in the school. He is also our DJ for the market. He has got a great sense and respect for nature. With a little money that he makes on odd jobs he supports his family. Watching how the SEED garden supports the development of community interest and then a community garden. CURRICULUM: Being a high school, we enjoy deep exploration of environmental themes. We often end up in long and passionate debates about issues like Climate Change. The Classes that come to the garden most frequently are from Grade 8-11. Teacher champions are Mrs M. Meleni, Mrs Masiza, Mrs Depha, Mrs Mabula and Mr 50
Mambumbu Favorite lessons: 1. Global warming and renewable energy 2. Photosynthesis 3. Chicken lesson & building a chicken tractor 4. Fertility lesson & setting up a liquid manure farm and worm farms 5. Medicinal plants (story telling) & planting of herbs 6. Water and setting up irrigation 7. Pest management NUTRITION: The school’s feeding scheme harvest use the vegetables, the surplus vegetables are sold to the teachers. PERMACULTURE: We spent a lot of time working on the actual food gardening, building fertility through compost banks, compost systems and worm farms. The perennial systems are doing well.
OUR PROGRAMMES Next steps: We look forward to strengthening the High School Curriculum and formalizing it into a book.
From our partners :
Ms Nazo: “Learners have learnt about biodiversity.
Ms Madala: Gained knowledge on soil
profiles, ecosystem, global warming, windbreaks, wind direction, wind cork, green house effect.
Ms Masala: Marketing skills and business op-
portunities, community development, release stress “ Learners gained a real experience of healthy living environment, world of work, career opportunities, measurements, sustainable living, water, harvesting, environmentally friendly, lessons on pollution.”
Ms Masiza, Educator
“We now understand soil science thoroughly!”
Mr. Meleni, Natural Science Educator “Food, skills, enjoyment, freedom!”
Learners with dirty hands and big smiles.
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OUR PROGRAMMES Littlewood Primary Mitchells Plain
Green Practice Highlights Medicinal plants (story telling) & planting of herbs. “Learners listened attentively while I was telling them the story of an old man from a deep rural village of Transkei, who was a traditional healer using branches, roots, leaves and bark as medicinal plants to heal the people of his village. They got deeply involved in the story and even their eyes were showing a deep sense of remorse and excitement. They were also excited about learning about different plants that heal different diseases. They took some leaves home to give to their parents and siblings.” Theo Oldjohn, SEED Facilitator CURRICULUM We have worked extensively with the Intermediate Phase (Grade 4-6) as well as the Foundation Phase (once the chicken tractor was introduced). Champion teachers are H. Matthews, R Wales, T. Coetzee, M. Jacobs, S Lewis, A Weits and C Harris. NUTRITION The gardener harvests the vegetables and supplies the school’s feeding scheme. The surplus vegetables are given to the community members that support the school garden and sold to support the garden.
PERMACULTURE At Littlewood we are most proud of shaping, adding compost and mulching of vegetable beds. The installation of the irrigation system was exciting as was the setting up of a chicken tractor, which helps with fertilizing and working the soil. We are operating an intensive liquid fertilizer system and beefed up the windbreaks to protect the exposed garden from strong winds especially northeasterly and southeasterly winds.
Next steps: Strengthen the links to the community and train existing community members. Establish proper working composting area, separately from the worm farm area. Increase vegetable gardening production.
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OUR PROGRAMMES From our partners : “It has raised awareness in children about nature and respect. The teachers use the garden as an outdoor classroom. What we have in the garden is growing very well; we also appreciate when Theo brings us plants, and other resources. As a school we generate a stipend for our gardener by organizing casual days and selling surplus vegetables from the garden. Learners are very interested in the garden; they now know how to plant trees and vegetables. Every body is happy and proud about the garden�.
Mr. Wales, Educator
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OUR PROGRAMMES Zenzeleni Waldorf School Khayelitsha
Green Practice Summary: SEED complements the Wardolf schooling, which believes in nurturing and creating a safe and inspiring space for learning. The Waldorf approach is very child centered – and so SEED facilitation.
Highlights: There are two learners Grade 1 learners, Lihle and Sethu, who love to be in the garden, they believe we as people we are responsible of taking care of plants and animals. They really enjoy planting, unfortunately they only plant at school since they don’t have garden at home because the yards are small and there is no space. Community members have approached the school to build a community garden in the school grounds and asked for help from SEED. Our favorite lessons are: 1. Chicken lesson & building a chicken tractor 2. Fertility lesson & setting up a liquid manure farm and worm farms 3. Medicinal plants (story telling) & planting of herbs 4. Water and setting up irrigation 5. Pest management CURRICULUM The educators use the garden for education. The teachers have developed their own schedule for going outdoor lessons separate from the Seed schedule. Champions are; Miss L. Mtuzula, Mrs N. Mbatani, Miss B. Vumbi, Mr T. Mahachi and Mr Z. Festile. We regularly work with classes from Grade 1-7. NUTRITION The school’s harvest and use the food on special occasion to feed the learners and the surplus vegetables is given to the community soup kitchen and the other is sold to the teachers.
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Next steps: Intensify food production. Support the development of the community garden.
OUR PROGRAMMES
From our partners: “Children are more motivated and active, gain knowledge about plants as food or shelter, getting medicine and healing from herbs, caring about environment, children learn not to stamp and walk on beds, experience all sorts of life around plants, e.g. birds, learners know how to take care of animals, they know some are for a good purpose, some are not (pests). Children become more concerned about their environment, they are very interested in sitting outside and using the outdoor classroom as an area for relaxing. They like being and working in the garden, and not being lazy doing nothing. The teachers find it easy to integrate their lessons in the program, using the outdoor classroom. Subjects such as science, ecology and even languages could are related to the program. This has also created a friendly environment. Teachers, children and all staff children are very happy and enthusiastic about the garden.�
Mrs. Nobuhle Mbathane, Educator
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OUR PROGRAMMES Ridgeville Primary Mitchells Plain
Green Practice
Highlights Shaun is an amazing caretaker, with no formal training but a deep sense of nature and green hands. He is very passionate about the learner and community development. In the school he fulfills the role of security, gardener, mentor, parent and a teacher. Such an amazing person! CURRICULUM The educators use the garden as a living laboratory for teaching. SEED works with Classes from Grade 3-7. Champion teachers are Mr S.P. Hans, Mr A.G. Salie, Mr P.T. Atkins, Ms Persens, Ms Adonis, Ms Knoneberg, Ms Stanfield, Mr van Zyl, Ms van Rooyen, Mr T.A. Bock and Ms Miller, Mrs Masiza, Mrs Depha, Mrs Mabula and Mr Mambumbu. NUTRITION Vegetables supplement the feeding scheme and extra abundance is sold and put into a savings account for the garden. 56
PERMACULTURE The Green Practice year is a year of focusing on shaping and mulching of the vegetable beds. Building of worm farm and liquid manure farm to support the fertility of the soil in the garden and support plant growth. Installation of irrigation system to water plants in the garden. Planting of vegetable to support the feeding scheme of the school. Planted herbs and windbreak species that protect the garden from strong win especially the northeasterly wind in this garden. Putting up the kitchen tractor with chickens that support fertilizing and working the soil.
Next steps: Scales to measure food harvests. Intensify production. Build a small nursery.
WHAT WORKS From our partners: “On behalf of the learners, staff and school governing body, I wish to express our most sincere gratitude to you for choosing Ridgeville Primary School to be a part of the SEED program for 2010. It is by far one of the best initiatives that the school was involved with. It helped to improve the quality of learning and teaching during the year. It was a structured program that not only supported and assisted learners, teachers and other staff members with new skills and knowledge gained. The Principal and School Governing Body also used the program to assist learners who displayed behavioral problems. Many of these learners responded positively to this venture. The chief facilitator for the year, Theo, also met with the staff members on a couple of occasions and shared interesting skills, values, knowledge and attitudes. One of the main lessons learnt from him was to avoid lofty ideals and abstract ideas and to stick to projects that could be managed and practiced. Our school security member, Mr. Shaun Coert became part of the SEED program and even invested extra time into maintaining the school garden after hours and over weekends. The school has gained immensely from the program and sees it as an investment in the community and hopefully the fruitful partnership between SEED and Ridgeville Primary School will be an ongoing one.�
Percy Atkins
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OUR PROGRAMMES
West End Mitchells Plain
GREEN ABUNDANCE Curriculum integration Many educators from different grades use the garden for teaching, including the extra curricular reading group. The new recycling project has been linked to data handling for the older grades. Even educators who lost touch with the project are getting involved again. The school has added some of its own signage. All lessons are filed in the Eco Schools file.
Permaculture specifics The school was lucky enough to have the services of a former gardener, Zakhe, as a Rainbow worker for a few months, and was so impressed with his gardening ability that they committed to paying him on two days per week once his Rainbow contract had ended. The productive food and medicine garden was rapidly re-established under his care, as well as support from the other grounds man – Mr. Glover and the two dedicated teachers – Mrs. Carelse and Mrs. Stander. They have also been propagating a lot of seedlings and cuttings in their nursery, and expanded the garden into two large sections. Community support for this garden is growing – manure is collected from parents who own a stable on a termly basis, parents have donated tools and seed after a major theft at the school in the third term.
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OUR PROGRAMMES Future plans A third section of the current garden awaits further development into food production. We are busy developing a forest and Mrs. Carelse is sourcing trees to expand this area. The new principal has included the garden in the official school budget for 2011.
Nutrition Vegetables go into the soup kitchen, and some are sold to generate money for the garden.
From our partners
“The Eco Club is in this garden every day – sometimes I have to chase them back to their classes! I love the fact that the garden is right outside my window too.”
Mrs. Carelse
Huguenot Primary Mitchells Plain
GREEN ABUNDANCE Curriculum integration Educators use the outdoor classroom extensively for environmental lessons. Mostly Natural Sciences are taught outdoors, across most of the grades. The younger learners interact most with the earthworm systems!
Permaculture specifics: This school has really struggled to find a volunteer gardener as few people in the poor area of Mitchells Plain can afford to work for free. They have had a bit of assistance from a Rainbow worker, but his contract ended. The garden is also too small for it to be economically viable for anyone to run a small business from it. Occasionally youth from a rehabilitation centre assist with weeding the garden. All the perennial plants are in place, but no annuals to speak of.
Future Plans: The school has elected to turn the annual vegetable beds into a peace park area with more fruit trees as well as medicinal and herbal shrubs. This has already begun, and SEED has supplied extra medicinal plants to assist with this endeavor.
From our partners: “We would like to thank SEED for their patience with our process, and we really enjoy attending the Market days at Rockland’s. We do miss having lessons from the SEED facilitators. ”
Mrs. E Josephs
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OUR PROGRAMMES Imperial primary Mitchells Plain
GREEN ABUNDANCE Curriculum integration Mr. Gamieldien reports that having gardens for learners to interact with is very important as they learn to nurture plants, trees and even animals introduced by these gardens. He has also noticed that learners find it easier to focus when they are engaged in practical activities – especially the learners who are educationally challenged. In addition teachers across the grades use the outdoor space for lessons – whether these are directly linked to the garden or simply using the outdoor classroom.
Permaculture specifics Their garden still showcases some of the best windbreak growth in this harsh environment – showing that the Permaculture approach can create microclimates that are conducive to outdoor learning for growing learners, as well as young plants. Nutrition The garden supplies vegetables to the soup kitchen, and some vegetables are sold to teachers to pay for feeding the 2 chickens in the garden. The catering staff also makes use of the herbs in the garden for medicinal teas.
Future Plans The school has re-hired Willem, the old gardener for four days per week to ensure that the system can flourish. They would like to look at establishing a small nursery so that they can be self sufficient in seedling production as well as propagate more plants for the school.
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OUR PROGRAMMES Caravelle Primary Mitchells Plain
GREEN ABUNDANCE Curriculum integration: Children are very involved in garden activities of all sorts, and hopefully next year will bring a more stable and productive situation.
Permaculture specifics: This school was developing really well until the third term of this year when an internal conflict led to the dismissal of the volunteer garden manager. The interesting result of this is that more of the school staff got involved in the garden, including the Principal and catering staff. Due to vandalism, the nursery is being moved into the school buildings. As Caravelle is positioned on a ridge near the coast it is battered by winds, and improving the windbreaks has been the focus in the latter part of this year. Food has been planted, and it would be useful for this school to tap into the body of knowledge at Rockland’s Primary.
Nutrition: Mrs. Jantjies – who is primarily a caterer, but also a caretaker, also attended the SEED nutrition workshop led by chef Larissa Green. She is very involved in the garden – and has a long history with the school garden, which she has helped to re-establish.
Future plans: The school aims to start small with the nursery supplying its own and local needs and will look to expanding the nursery further when they achieve success in the first phase. The nursery has been put into the 2011 school budget. Caravelle is now committed to employing a gardener for two days per week in order to get the food production to point that it can supply the soup kitchen daily, and funds the gardener’s wages. To date, some modest sales of lettuce and leek have been made and the funds went into the garden fund.
Quotes: “We are very grateful to SEED for their ongoing support and look forward to continuing a relationship with them next year. We are determined to make a success of this.”
Mrs. Damon, Principal
“ The school staff quotas were severely cut back in the last few years and that this has led to a less time and person power being available for school gardens – we used to be able to manage a garden four times the size of this one, and sell vegetables to hawkers.”
Mr. Daniels
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WHAT WORKS
Education
Working in partnership with teachers in an Education enrichment role SEED books rock! Bringing joy into the process Working with open hearts Connecting children to the Ecosystems that support them is natural Entrepreneurial projects for Economic Management Sciences Five-Day Gardeners Courses Five-Day Teacher Courses Long terms comprehensive partnership
Permaculture Systems
Robust Perennial Systems – that create microclimate for growing food Green Practice in the second year so that the planting harvesting rhythm is part of the school heartbeat Consultative Design
Community
The presence of a community gardener Having gardens where parents can see them means that interaction and involvement are inevitable Holistic Goal Formation SEED going to School Governing bodies Mentoring Community Facilitators Medicinal gardens are what community members know and love Enterprises at schools to employ Community members
Feeding learners
Feasts Fertility fertility – you are not farming vegetables you are farming the soil Involving the Garden Gourmets – the Soup Kitchen Ladies
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LOOKING FORWARD TO 2011
Development of Accredited permaculture certificate We have also found amazing partners who will help us to write the two full certificates we plan to write: Level 2: Food production – this would be aimed at unemployed people who had not finished school. We have applied to the Agricultural SETA to fund the writing of this. Level 5: Sustainable Studies – this will be the equivalent of a first year university. We would work in partnership with an university to make sure that this articulates with other degrees.
Mushrooms for community abundance Devon Pather has ably supported us and we have developed a business plan for a mushroom project that operates from Rockland’s and provides sustainable livelihoods for five community members. We are committed to making this happen and are looking at starting in early 2011. The project infrastructure is refurbished shipping containers that are climate controlled. We are exploring a partnership with UCT Renewable Energy to make sure the project is off the grid.
Rocklands outdoor classroom 2011 will see the final plans drawn up and submitted to council. We will also build the first building – the Caretakers cottage. We endeavour to raise funds for the next building – the classroom.
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LOOKING FORWARD TO 2011
Organic classroom National Expansion We have received funding to work with 34 schools in 6 nodes for 2011. The nodes are: Limpopo, Johannesburg, Free State, Kwa Zulu Natal, Southern Cape and Cape Flats. We are now able to employ an Operations Manager. VIVA!
“What do I think of Western civilization? I think it would be a very good idea.�
Mohandas Gandhi
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