planting of spinach seedlings

Description

The Berakah Foundation started in 1996 with a vision to uplift needy people. The heart and intention of those involved in the Foundation was to go in and serve the community of Stanza Bopape in Mamelodi East. After spending two years building relationships with key people in the community and hearing of their needs, it became evident that the greatest need at that time was for entrepreneurial skills training, and the organisation’s first service that they offered was in the area of small business development training. With the entry of the HIV/AIDS pandemic around 2000 they saw the necessity to focus on the care of orphans and vulnerable children and so began their model of Home-Based Orphan Care. Over the years they have worked closely with primary schools in the area assisting with care and mentorship of the children in attendance at the schools. The Foundation which now owns a site out in Stanza Bopape, offers a business development programme to the community and it is especially designed to assist people who would like to start a business or expand an existing one. 

The organisation wanted to plant spinach into the two existing 9m X 4m vegetables tunnels. This required the filling of plastic bags with sawdust prior to planting seedlings and moving them into the vegetable tunnels.

The primary beneficiaries of the project will be Berakah Foundation’s after-school care program that caters for 175+ children, and its day care centre that has an enrolment of 90+ children. Berakah Foundation strives to provide at least one hot nutritious meal a day to the children incorporating fresh vegetables. The vegetable tunnels are co-located with the after-school program and day care facility. Through this project the organisation will be able to continue feeding the 175 plus children that go to the aftercare every afternoon. 

The AVI team  Taahira Hardien - AVI Financial Shared Services Jerome Jalim - AVI Financial Shared Services Ingrid Forster - AVI Financial Shared Services Asha Manchoo - AVI Financial Shared Services Shane Heenen - AVI Financial Shared Services Verna Wales - AVI Financial Shared Services Belinda Saayman - AVI Financial Shared Services

Feedback from the project 

The project entailed filling bags with growing medium, planting of 1,200 spinach seedlings in the bags and moving them to the existing tunnels. We had an enjoyable and very productive day. The seedlings are growing very very well! Nine volunteers from AVI attended. They achieved not only the successful planting of the spinach, but from their side had the opportunity to enjoy an informal day, away from their corporate world, experiencing life in Mamelodi at its fullest.

Berakah Educational Foundation would like to say: Dankie, Thank you, Ke A Leboga, Siyabonga Kakhulu, Nkosi, Rolivhuaa!! We really enjoyed the day working with you.