Small Projects Foundation

Partner(s):

The Small Projects Foundation is located in East London and has been involved in Community Development for nineteen years. Its mission is to improve the quality of life of the poor and marginalized within the Eastern Cape. The Eastern Cape remains one of the poorest provinces in South Africa. The extreme poverty is largely a reflection of the legacy of apartheid such that the poverty prevalent in the former homelands of Transkei and Ciskei has remained after they were incorporated into the new region called the Eastern Cape post 1994. Subsistence agriculture still predominates. With a firm thrust on the principles of sustainability, the SPF aims at achieving the development of individuals who are committed to their own growth and development. The SPF mission is to engender the development of individuals, families and communities, in the context of a market economy. The Eastern Cape climate is highly varied but generally gets progressively wetter from west to east. The west is mostly semi-arid Karoo, except in the far south, which is temperate rainforest in the Tsitsikamma region. The west receives scarce rain during winter of summer, with frosty winters and hot summers. The Tsitsikamma to Grahamstown receives more precipitation, which is also relatively evenly distributed and temperatures are mild. Further east, rainfall becomes more plentiful and humidity increases, becoming more subtropical along the coast with summer rainfall. Should you need more information on the Small Projects Foundation, please log onto their website http://www.spf.org.za

Our Involvement:

SPF has requested AgriPlanner facilitator training for seventeen of its facilitators, who in turn will provide training to an initial 100 community members involved in agriculture in the three rural areas of Maclear/Ugie, Dordrecht and Gnushwa. SAIE’s AgriPlanner is particularly relevant for SPF given their strong emphasis on sustainability. AgriPlanner enables communities to maximize their existing resources and boost production to the extent of surpassing subsistence levels of production and achieving small scale commercial viability. AgriPlanner also blends in with SPF’s project management training, social marketing and innovative development.

Project Progress:

13 facilitators were trained at the SPF premises over a five day period in November 2007, followed by a five day support visit in February 2008. Facilitators are training 48 food gardeners in three rural areas around Ugie, Maclear and Queenstown. Implementation has also started in the Humansdorp area. The programme also allows for identification of weaknesses in agricultural skills, allowing SPF facilitators to assist gardeners to procure expertise to address these weaknesses. SPF hopes to have 100 gardeners on the programme by December 2008.

Funder:

Product:

Agri Planner

Location:

Eastern Cape