Communities in Clairwood, Durban are beginning to enjoy the freshness of green veggies and herbs grown in their own backyard gardens. These community members, who have volunteered their time and energy to learn the art of growing and sustaining vegetable gardens, have adopted the government’s campaign, ‘One home one garden’, aimed at poverty alleviation. This is part of a project initiated by eThekwini Municipalities' South Durban Basin Area Based Management office in partnership with a non-profit organisation, ELET (Environment and Language Education Trust).

Residents and home gardeners were recently invited to a workshop and meeting at the Cherry Road site to discuss progress, form a committee and participate in a demonstration on care and propagation of plants. Local community members were excited with their efforts and thrilled that their first batch of vegetables is going to be ready for sale to the public soon. Mervyn Ogle, from ELET, said that he was pleased with the progress of the project thus far and wanted to thank local community members for participating in the project. Local community leaders too have supported and contributed to the success of the project.

A local committee was elected to deal with day-to-day issues faced on site. The committee comprises of Pastor Mkhize from ELET, Pravin Nanook from the Clairwood Social Forum who oversees the gardens' daily activities, Sidney Govindasamy also from the Social Forum, Kista Naidoo and Rishi Singh from the Clairwood Ratepayers Association and one gardener.

Pastor Mkhize, who has worked hard in imparting his skills and knowledge to the gardeners, said "I am sure that this community garden will be extremely successful in sustaining itself. As the first batch of vegetables are sold, more seedlings and compost will be purchased". South Durban Basin Social Development Manager, Eurakha Singh, commented that, whilst these projects are easy to set up, the challenge lies in keeping them going. For this project, the plan into the future is to organize households that are willing to participate into co-operatives, and to teach them some financial management and bookkeeping skills, so that they are nudged into moving from simple vegetable growing to becoming self-sustaining business ventures.

Any queries about the project can be directed to Zain Amod or Pastor Mkhize on 031 261-3177 / 074 828-0150.