Empowering communities to adapt to a changing climate

“Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for life” is the Chinese proverb that perhaps best captures the Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) programme, in South Africa.

The five-year programme, developed and managed by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), funded by the Government of Flanders, and supported by partners including the South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment as well as the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) spans across the Eastern, Northern and Western Cape provinces of the country in the hope of equipping and empowering mostly rural communities and outlying areas to adapt to the changing climate that is having a detrimental impact to their farming and agricultural sustenance.

Our journey with UNEP takes me to the Western Cape Province, to the agricultural town of Phillipi. As we drive through what is now considered a semi-urban area, it is evident that the socio-economic conditions of this area are in stark contrast to the tourist-attractive areas that Cape Town is usually known for.

Due to segregationist policies under apartheid, Phillipi, which is part of the Cape Flats area synonymous for crime and gangsterism, has become densely populated and where it was once known for its agricultural and grazing landscape, only about 10% of that is present today.

The informal settlements of Langa, Gugulethu and Khayelitsha respectively are neighbours to the residents of Phillipi where food insecurity, poverty, unemployment and overcrowding is rife. However, it is in the heart of this town from which the Dream Factory operates.

We meet with Zipho Chihota, the Programmes Manager at the Dream Factory Foundation on a Wednesday morning where the Emergent Academy training is in full swing. We take a seat at the back of the room with about 30 young ladies aged between 18 and 25 as they discuss the day’s topical issue of food security and the benefits of a food garden.

Food insecurity is a growing challenge in these communities especially after the COVID-19 pandemic when many lost their jobs and subsequently their livelihoods. The young ladies are trained in English and the local language, predominantly Xhosa, on topics such as cultivating on good, fertile soil, planting seedlings, harvesting their crops and effectively feeding their families.

“It’s not only the youth that benefits from this programme”, says Zipho as she affectionately introduces 66-year-old Mama Cynthia Ndlama. Mama Ndlama has come to speak to the young ladies about her food garden that was started by her husband but is now managed by her twenty-year-old granddaughter, Liama, who graduated from the Emergent Academy programme in 2021. The six-month training programme proved a worthy investment in her time and energy as she learnt valuable skills that she took back home and grew the food garden at the creche that Mama Ndlama runs in the Khayelitsha informal township.

“It’s my vision to look after the children, I am worried about children that are on the street, so I started the creche in a shack. And the roof was leaking, but with fund-raising, we were able to fix it and make my vision come true,” says Mama Ndlama as she relays the story of the inception of the creche.

Mama Ndlama says she had no money at the time, but her husband who worked as a carpenter was able to help her fix the leaking “shelter after they received donations from the community to buy zink roofing. She also describes her now late husband as a man with green fingers.The children were hungry, some of them were on the street all the time. I couldn’t see it so my husband started a small food garden, it helped us so much.” Her granddaughter, Liama is active in growing and sustaining the food garden which now feeds the 50 young children at the creche but is also used to sustain the creche as Mama Ndlama sells some of the produce to the local community and the money helps to maintain and keep the creche functional.

“I used to plough the garden – ploughing broccoli, carrots and all kinds of vegetables and I raised money from selling the vegetables to build a classroom for the children.” Describing the taste of the vegetables that she ploughs, “Ooh it is wonderful, that food that comes from the garden, it is just wonderful,” adds Mama Ndlama.

Asking her where Liama is now, Mama Ndlama replies, “Liama, that one, haibo [no], she is so active. Even now if you go and find her you will see her teaching. She is teaching the young children and the old ladies in the community how to grow a food garden and feed each other. That one likes to teach, she is a brilliant child.”

“This is the essence of the training at the Emergent Academy, the skills learnt here benefit not only the young ladies and their families but they impart the skills that they learn to benefit their communities,” says Zipho to the team from UNEP and partners.

“The training also lends itself to critical thinking in terms of solutions to some of the challenges that are faced by the community in starting food gardens.

One of these challenges is related to space and some are related to the presence of stray animals who feed on the crops and produce. As the groups brainstorm, some of the solutions include planting the seedlings in buckets or trays as a space saver, while also a means to keep animals at bay as buckets and trays are easy to move and can be kept on high surfaces.

Mama Ndlama adds that she is talking with the local church to obtain land to begin a food garden there as she too does not have enough space to extend her food garden. With the overcrowding and dense population, there is a demand for food but not enough land to cultivate the soil to feed the growing numbers.

From the enthusiasm in the training room to the spark in Mama Ndlama’s eyes as she talks about her food garden, it is evident that the EbA programme is doing exactly what it set out to achieve, empowering communities toward food security.