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| image: The Elastic Troop |
Food insecurity has been a
major global crisis that hasn’t received much attention in some other countries
but most especially our youth. The increase in poverty and unemployment plays
an effective role within South African citizens from the economic crisis adding
to the struggle of not affording to buy food to eat. Venturing in this
particular task of knowing more about Food security and engaging with a local
farmer, Mma Mathabo Tlaka from Soweto has enabled me to be more aware of the
food that I eat and the process of planting and harvesting crops. This is not
the only facet but developing ways to give back to the community which is
through CSI projects.
Now possibly for those who
are still unaware of Food security or Food insecurity, it all revolves around
the ability in which people can obtain food on a day to day basis; and Food
insecurity is the inability of people who are unable to obtain food on a day to
day basis due to financial problems and unemployment. These two factors are
some of the issues that lead to the increase of food insecurity within South
Africa as well as other countries affected by the same factors.
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| image: Jabulie Radebe, separating spinach |
Mma Mathabo Tlaka is a
humble and committed woman who is
passionate about farming and giving back to the community as she understands
how it feels like to grow up struggling and not having the basic needs to go
through your day. On the 30th of March 2015, in a
group of seven students we traveled to Soweto to meet and engage with our farmer for the first time. The name of the group was called, The Elastic Troop.
Our farmer welcomed us on the day to help her and the other farmers to clean up
the gardens so that they can plant more vegetables. My experience of ploughing
and understanding the process of planting was a way for me to get educated but
the best experience I still carry with me is being the voice for these farmers
and giving back to the community as well as creating business opportunities for the
farmers.
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| image: Poster for community project |
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| image: Hauweng logo |
We were able to go to
different markets within the area and create awareness through word of mouth
marketing and posters about the farm. We also developed a community project to
get younger individuals involved in farming and our first group was a youth
from the Universal Kingdom church that were not far from the farm. I had the
opportunity to do what I’m most passionate about to contribute to creating more
awareness which is designing a poster and logo for the farmer to add on to
their packaging. Language being a barrier I had to learn from my group how to
respond to the farmers; and another thrilling experience I had was approaching
the Machochonono Primary school to partner with the farmer in providing
learners with vegetables to contribute to the feeding scheme which enabled me
to learn how to communicate and present an idea which was acceptable.
Fun facts I have learnt during
my experience at the farm:
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| image: spinach |
- Did you know that the stamp
of the spinach that normally people throw away is actually important because it
is used as medicine to treat babies when they have constipation issues?
- Did you also know the
strategy used to scare away the birds if they are a problem in your farm?, you
simply place sticks or polls by the sides or corners of your garden plot and
attach plastics to the sticks which can be easily blown away by the wind to
scare the birds.
