my sister and her boyfriend are currently roadtripping in the eastern cape. i spent awesome holidays there as a kid when we lived in umtentweni and westville in kzn. i went back recently for another holiday. it was beautiful but the poverty was on another level entirely. but the lush green rolling hills – miles and miles of them all unfarmed…

i came across this site yesterday which i found really inspiring. http://www.sicambeni.co.za/node. in a village called sicambeni, there is a project underway to help the residents to become more self-sufficient and sustainable. so far they have helped with a school and veggie gardening, as well as water management.

what i like about this project is closely related to a previous post i made about the need for food sovereignty among the rural poor in south africa. when we told rural women farmers in india about the system of social grants in south africa, they were appalled. they said that this would make people reliant on buying food and to lose touch with the importance and power of growing your own food. i have heard this story told by various people i have met from the eastern cape on courses i did at varsity too. and stories about the dangers of big NGOs coming in and giving people things like tractors… when the NGO leaves, the people have no money or skills to repair the tractor or pay for its petrol use.

so i like the approach of amapondo projects, which aims to teach the local people how to do things for themselves, so that they are the guardians of their own futures. one of the guys who is running the project also has a very cool blog http://sustain-ability.blogspot.com/. all these sites are really worth checking out. very inspiring to see.

you can go and volunteer there too. http://amapondovolunteers.co.za/. i am really keen to maybe go and spend a month there once i am done with my studies. but we will have to see what kind of jobs come up after i am done. i currently have zero money with which i could get there, let alone donate money for my upkeep etc. but i love the eastern cape. its so similar to my childhood town of umtentweni in many ways (the warm sea, the tropical dunes, the muddy rivers, the humid summer rains). i would also love to see what is happening in that village for myself.