July 2014 ~ The HOPE Centre

Our community gardens have been very successful this year as we have both increased participation and also more closely integrated the community garden in Zandspruit, which we call the Kopano Garden Project, with the rest of The HOPE Centre. After our gardening participants received training from the Northcliff Rotary and JAM (Joint Aid Management, Int’l) earlier this year, the garden took off and attracted the attention of both our patients and a local restaurant. As a result, gardeners recently began selling part of the produce from the garden to patients which both gives patients access to affordable healthy vegetables and also generates income for our gardeners which they save through our VSL program. Similarly, gardeners will begin selling produce to the local restaurant later this year.

However, 26 June was a particularly special day in Zandspruit as we went beyond caring for the health and growth of our vegetables and concentrated on the health and personal growth of our gardeners.

Testing of our gardeners for diabetes and blood pressure.

With the help of Refilwe and Lebo from our community outreach and programs team, we arranged for Portia Zulu, the newest member of Project HOPE South Africa, to address the group. Portia is a professional nutritionist/dietitian and succeeded in involving the group in a lively discussion about healthy eating patterns and fitness. Diabetes and blood pressure tests were done and the group will now partake in an 8 month health and fitness programme and then be retested. Around 95% of the group suffers from high blood pressure, and this intervention will contribute greatly to the general well-being of our gardeners.

A very special thanks to Refilwe who has been the backbone of our gardening project and communicator par excellence. Her leadership qualities has contributed greatly to the success of this project.