Micro-farming among the poor Cape Town

Dear GlobalGiving Friends

We are in early summer here in Cape Town and evevy one is extra busy getting their gardens (micro-farms) going. We now train over 800 new farmers per annum, young and old. We support over 3000 microfarmers every year with seedlings, seed and manure.

We train kids during school holidays and adukts and youth throughout the year. We are delighted to be so busy in these hard times, since it is always the poor and unemployed who suffer most from lack of healthy food to eat, causing high blood pressure from stress and diabetes from too much junk food. People with mental problems like Depression also benefit greatly by organic micro-farming.....just experiencing things growing brings joy into the dark nights of the soul.

So there we have it folks. There are two recent pics in this report: One is of the kids training during school holidays, all from different schools. They all get start up packs and notes to get their home gardens going well.

The second pic is of a recent group of graduates from our 3 day Basic Agriculture course. You can see the size of this group and there are many more coming!!

Thank you as always for your interest and support. We are not a begin end project, we are an ongoing programme which graduates hundreds every year so they can start or better maintain their organic micro-farms in the black townships and surrounds here in Cape Town, where unemployment is often up to 90% in certain areas, but on average about 40%.

God bless you all and keep you safe in these troubled times. If you pop into Cape Town, come and see our marvellous work. Its a work of devotion, love and art.

All the very best

Rob Small

project leader

Dear GlobalGiving Friends

Here in Cape Town we have entered winter, the time of rains and gusty storms.

The rain makes it easier on our farmers since irrigation duty is reduced. And our farmers can plant their crops knowing that they will get lots of help from nature to ensure they do not dry out.

The picture here shows a few of the farmers with some of their produce. These farmers supply Harvest of Hope, their marketing arm, which sells their produce on to the public at a good price. So, despite being formally unemployed, our farmers are creating their own jobs by growing healthy produce.

Your ongoing help makes it possible for us to mentor and train these farmers to improve quality and quantity so as to create a healthy income stream into each of the farmer's households. 

Thank you for your continued interest and support, every cent is used to ensure that our farmers become more successful.

Very best regards

Rob Small