Greetings to you in a sparkling new 2012!! 

It is definitely the "wake up!" year, I think. No more can we continue in the aggressive, bully-boy, winner takes all manner which is continually exampled (while often saying the opposite) by our world political and business "leaders". 

But we don't need stupid violent people's revolutions either, destroying everything and forcing us backwards.

So thank you , again, for your ongoing and generous help and interest in "the Gentle Revolution" - see my previous posting for more info.

Please take a look at our latest Friends Newsletter # 38 on www.abalimi.org.za . It focuses on how the youth are really starting to come in to the micro-farming movement. 

• Abalimi Friends newsletter # 38 (PDF)
  

hello again everyone!

further to my last report, here is the article that sparked me off (which was also printed in the Cape Times some weeks before) , entitled "Systemic debt-the shadow finanancial system' by Joseph Edozien,  plus my article as it apears in the Cape Times. 

The systemic debt article is the best I have ever read on the subject - making the matter understandable for non-economists. 

Thank you once again, one and all, for your help with the micro-farming movement in Cape Town as a model for South Africa.

If you are coming to Cape Town , please note we are closed to the public from 15th December - 10th Jan  (no tours & visits), since its the only time of the year we and our micro-farmers and field workers and trainers get to take a break.

Our thousands of micro-farmers just hunker down and wait out the burning heat (often over 40 degrees) and e with boiling wind to boot)  which happens around then, keeping close to the ground and coming out to water the crops in the morning and evening, and to do essential maintenace tasks on cooler days.

• Systemic debt- the shadow financial system (PDF)
  
• Family farming original article in Cape Times (PDF)
  

Hello dear Global Giving Friends!

An article I wrote just got published in full, in the Cape Times, 11.11.11, a leading local newspaper- in their Next Economy national Dialogue (NEND) series, under the heading of "a gentle revolution- Family farming vs the killer foods", on Pg 11 !! I wonder if that means something? 11th day, 11th month, 2011th century, 11th page. 11th hour?

Please, everyone, spread the word and keep supporting our movement if you can, one way or another

- wherever you are , if you have a job and an income, buy from your local organic family farmers, get to know them, support them with passion

- if you have a job and adequate income, do NOT grow your own food- create a virtuous cycle rather, by buying from your local family farmers.

If you dont have a job and an income, * become * a local family micro-farmer and supply those who do have regular jobs and income - you can survive on as little as 100m2, and you can create a reasonable, though modest income, on as little as 500m2 of land !!!! Its better than sitting around, hoping for a job that never comes!!

Problems of hunger, physical and mental health, environment, climate change and jobs solved, in one step.

Thank you for supporting the micro-farming movement here at the tip of Africa - we are building a very hot spark that is catching far and wide, and we look forward to the moment when this spark lights the huge but * gentle * fire that is bound to sweep Africa and all the Third World- indeed already is (but we are behind in South Africa) as the so called Big System does its normal thing- make huge promises and disinherit millions, while super-enriching the few.

• the gentle revolution- family farming (DOC)

Dear Global Giving Friends

This is just a quick note to point you to a video of a live cook-up on TV, using a "township tradition" recipe from our Seed to Table Cookbook!   See the link below. 

This cookbook was initiated by Uthando (love) a social profit (non-profit) tour agency run by James Fernie, who appears along with the farmer-cooks in the video. His Cape Town tours are unique and every cent of profit goes to social projects including Abalimi. Go visit  www.uthandosa.org for more info on Uthando.

Not mentioned in the video is the fact that the book is co-authored by three wonderful American volunteers and Rotary scholars, Erin, Abby and Toni, who got together with some of our micro-farmers to put a pile of recepies together, using the lovely vegetables that we grow - most of them being table vegetables, common worldwide.

If you like cooking, why dont you buy a cookbook? 

Erin on erinkoepke@gmail.com   and  Abby on akelsener@gmail.com  are also our Agents in USA !  Toni is still in SA. They are selling the books for us at USD15.00 a copy plus mailing.   If you live elsewhere on this beautiful world,  and not the USA, just order a copy from Abalimi on info@abalimi.org.za and it can be air or surface mailed to you. ZAR100 plus postage.

They are lovely Christmas presents! 

Last but not least, thank you one and all, once again,  for your support and your donations.  I am not able to communicate directly with each of you, but PLEASE, if you have a question or concern, contact me on info@abalimi.org.za and I will respond. 

All the very best

Rob Small

Links:

• video of TV show about Seed to Table Cookbook

Hello Dear GlobalGiving Friends 

Take a peek at a nice article I just posted on the Entrepreneurship Africa online mag in the link below

Think of spreading the word about our work, because Global Gving are matching your donations until 19th October! 

Look out soon for our next Friends newsletter (#38) which is nearly "ready to roll" and I will post it with another report soon- all about Youth in our micro-farming movement

Please note that we have not named you each individually on our newsletter Roll of Honor, since we assume you all prefer your privacy in this instance, but we did name you all collectively as our GlobalGiving Friends. 

Thank you one and all, once again, for every single gift to support our micro-farming movement at the tip of Africa- we are a seed which is sprouting and spreading its energy country-wide and even Africa-wide! We are having farmer delegations from as far afield as Freetown in Sierra Leone come study our model!!! .  

Hope you are all thriving in your creativity.

All the very best

Rob Small

Links:

• article in Entrepreneurship Africa online mag

Hello everyone! 

With "COP17" coming up in Durban soon , we are getting quite a few queries about what our impact is on Climate Change. I attach a recent very short write up about this - I hope you will be impressed!!

Another topical 'worry-point' is "where are the young people in agriculture?" This is a worldwide question, to which I like to  give a tongue in cheek answer- "dont worry, there are always more people getting older and wiser, and they will carry on the work!! "  In addition,  we are now noticing a turn around- according to our network news there are now many young people who are coming 'on board the organic-bio-dynamic agriculture ark' worldwide, and this is true also for our micro-farmers in Cape Town. Please look out in October for our next newsletter # 38 which will feature some up and coming young farmers.  

Lastly and not leastly - thank you again and again,  to all,  for being such good "Friends of Abalimi" and putting your money on the line for our seminal work - kindling a new movement for family micro-farming among the poor which has the capacity to 'save the world'. Really. 

All the very best to one and all.

Rob

• Abalimi climate change impact (DOC)

Hello everyone! 

I am absolutely blown away by the constant stream of generous donations so many of you are giving. Thank you so very much for being there, for being so kind and for standing firmly with us!

 I dont have any new articles or video links to post at the moment, but if you have not seen them, please do scroll back through the reports and look at the recent videos and articles that I have posted over the last 12 months or so. They are all 100% current, since in the world of human development, and also among the poor, the reality is that change usually happens in leaps,  with long periods of build-up in between. 

Please do come visit and see first hand when in Cape Town! I personally conduct a Tuesday tour 9am-12pm every week except for public holidays and for three weeks over the Christmas period.  Invite below.

We are right now preparing a Friends newsletter (# 38) which will cover 12 months, and this could be ready as early as September! There are a couple of other articles and films which will also be copied to us- we have a lot of people wanting to promote our very successful and sustainable micro-farming model,  and help it spread far and wide!! 

All the very best

Rob

Invite to a tour for Friends of Abalimi : Tours go out every Tuesday , usually from 9am-12pm, except for public holidays,  VERY heavy weather, taxi riots and popular uprisings :-)  , or if overbooked and if no one is available to conduct them.  We normally begin at 9am at the BP garage, corner Wetton Rd and Rosmead Ave, Wynberg and finish by 12pm.  We combine cars as much as possible and go in convoy- there is secure parking for surplus cars.  We visit a community garden in Gugulethu, then the Abalimi -Harvest of Hope office & pack shed in Phillipi and finish up at the “place where all our work begins” - at the Abalimi People’s Garden Centre,  in Nyanga.  It is also possible for people coming from Stellenbosch side to start at 10:30am at the Abalimi pack shed (map available) and finish by 1pm after visiting the Peoples Garden Centre and the community garden .

To get an idea of what you will see:

1.  view a CNN clip about Abalimi ‘s work, as explained by our farmer leader Christina Kaba – its lovely!!  http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/03/29/community.farming.cape.town/index.html 

2.  check out a more detailed video made by American volunteer Matt Miller and his good friend Travis Blue on http://vimeo.com/19360310  - Matt and Travis are professional photographers and IT-media folks, who came specially to make the video and give it to Abalimi as a gift !   Amazing.

And read article/s & or newsletter/s on our websites listed below to get an idea of who we are and what you will see.

These tours are for Friends of Abalimi,  and are free of charge, although donations are always needed and very welcome.   Please see the donations form in the newsletter which is also on the website and will be handed out after the tour,  to see the options to donate.

The tour is “no frills”.  Please bring own snacks and refreshments,  and make sure to bring hats and all-weather gear as well. It can be boiling hot one moment and  rainy and cold with gale force wind the next.
 
Please let me know if you are coming..
 
My emergency contact number is 082 3319133.  
 
Best regards
 
Rob Small
Resource mobilization for ABALIMI
 
www.abalimi.org.za
www.harvestofhope.co.za
www.farmgardentrust.org

Dear Global Giving Friends,

This is just to say a BIG thank you, again,  to all of you who have donated till now, those who donate regularly,  or who have recently donated since I posted the last report.

If you have not already done so please do check out the video's I posted in my last report- they are really current and tell our whole story beautifully.

Please also come visit on a Tuesday morning 9am-12pm when in Cape Town. Thats when I do the Friends no-frills fact finding tour. Let me know if you are coming!!

Please also make sure to join your local Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) scheme wherever you live, and create a the future - local and sustainable food economies ! If there is no CSA in your area, create one! I can link you to people and info that could help you do this. 

All the best

Rob Small

micro-farmer: activist for the peaceful local organic green revolution among rich and poor alike

 Dear Friends one and all,

here is a link to a CNN clip about Abalimi ‘s work, as explained by our farmer leader Christina Kaba – its lovely!!

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/03/29/community.farming.cape.town/index.html 

Also check out  a video recently completed by an American volunteer- Matt Miller , and his good friend Travis Blue on http://vimeo.com/19360310  - Matt and Travis are professional photographers and IT-media folks, who came specially to make the video and give it to Abalimi as a gift. 

 Amazing.

All the best and  Viva to community micro-farming  !

Rob

Links:

• CNN clip on our work
• lovely video done by USA volunteers Matt Miller and Travis Blue

Greetings Global Giving Friends!

Did you know that extremes in Cape Town are normal- always have been. 

beach sand for soil, 40 degree dry heat in summer, floods in winter, gale force winds in between

the super rich living a few kilometers away from a sea of super poor

And our micro-farmers , who live among the shacks, are not deterred by the extremes- they know how to grow the most splendid abundance of healthy unpoisoned organic vegetables, to feed thousands of the poor, while selling some of these at a good price to those with jobs and money!

Please take a look the links below to view a lovely video made by volunteer Matt Miller , and his good friend Travis Blue- they came all the way from America to do it,  as a gift to Abalimi!!  

Please also read below a recent article about our leading micro-farmer, Christina Kaba.

And dont forget to keep a Tuesday morning free (9am-12pm) to visit our work first hand, when you visit Cape Town !

Please accept, one and all, our hearty thanks for your donations- every cent counts. Hundreds of micro-farmers among the poor in Cape Town have been, and continue to be,  supported with essential services, as a result. 

All the very best- Rob Small , family micro-farming activist!

Links:

• video made by volunteer Matt Miller & friend Travis Blue USA
• You Tube version of Matt & Travis's video

• Christina Kaba - Abalimi's lead micro-farmer (PDF)

Dear Friends,

Good greetings in 2011    

Although thousands of our micro-farmers took a short break over Christmas, this is also when the real Heat and Burning Wind begins to hit Cape Town.  40 degree temperatures combined with hot wind are not uncommon and crops can shrivel in an hour if not properly watered. So watering of all the new seedlings for the new season has continued every day, and now its time for the farmers to intensify work to ensure ongoing abundance in the New Year.  

I will post more reports in the next months, but if you have not already, please do google Abalimi on YouTube- you will  find some lovely new and old video clips there, which really do tell our story so nicely.  

Thank you thank you thank you , one and all,  or your ongoing support  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. Donations continue to stream in, like life giving water onto fertile land. 

Thank you also,  dear Global Giving Team,  for being a wonderful bridge between us and overseas friends!!!

All the very best and until the next report

Rob Small

for ABALIMI

Hello everyone, once again! 

I have attached our Friends newsletter # 37- I think its the best one ever. It has good photos, lots of news and a feature called "Men's gardens in a Woman's movement- Do they work? "  

Its worth the download time to read and enjoy. 

Your donations are always deeply appreciated. The micro-farming movement among the poor in Cape Town is a world class model which proves once and for all that food and cash poverty can be entirely overcome, on organic micro-farms not bigger than 100m2 to 500m2,  built on tiny pieces of useless wasteland, forever. 

Right now we have a delegation of farmers from Freetown in Sierra Leone studying the model. We are getting farmer and even government delegations (can you believe it?) from around SA applying to study our model.

It works  !!!  

We do not need mega Green Revolution industrial super-forced crops and animals to feed the world. This is absolute nonsense believed by some leaders, scientists, economists, business people and thoughtless consumers, who seem to live on another abstract planet.. 

Please do come and visit on a Tuesday morning 9am-12pm when in Cape Town - just let me know you are coming. I do the tour every Tuesday. Info below.  

All the best, as always, Rob - ever aspiring super-micro-farmer :) 

Info on Tours: Tours go out every Tuesday , usually from 9am-12pm, except for public holidays,  VERY heavy weather, taxi riots and popular uprisings J , or if overbooked and if no one is available to conduct them.  We normally begin at 9am at the BP garage, corner Wetton Rd and Rosmead Ave, Wynberg and finish by 12pm. Read the story on http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=82899   to get an idea of what you will see and hear. See also the attached/linked  article/s & or newsletter/s.

 These tours are for Friends of Abalimi,  and are free of charge, although donations are always much needed and very welcome.   Please see the donations form in the newsletter which will be handed out after the tour,  to see the options to donate.

The tour is “no frills” so please bring own snacks and refreshments and make sure to bring all-weather gear as well. It can be boiling hot one moment and  rainy and cold with gale force wind the next. 

Please let me know if you are coming..
 
My emergency contact number is 082 3319133.  
 
Best regards
 
Rob Small
Resource mobilization for ABALIMI
 
www.abalimi.org.za
www.harvestofhope.co.za
www.farmgardentrust.org

• Friends newsletter # 37 (PDF)
  

Dear Friends of Abalimi via Global Giving,

this is just to say a HUGE and earnest thank you to all who have donated over the past months .

There is nothing more fertile than a gift well given, except perhaps the gift we get from good healthy farmyard manure !!! :)

And your gifts are truly living rain to our work among the poor in Cape Town.

The micro-farmers are very busy planting the new season's crops and the gardens are looking beautiful and abundant- beacons of hope and joy in a sea of poverty and desperation for formal jobs which do not come. Unemployment in Cape Town is growing - the gap between rich and poor is so wide we get culture shock daily !! Unemployment stands officially at around 30% with more formal jobs being lost daily, even while the very healthy GDP of the formal SA economy earns good profits for the few.

Since we won our Impumelelo Gold Award (see previous report) , we have had at least 10 other agencies countrywide ask if they can come to study our model, with more making queries all the time.

So please do continue to assist us to keep our model thriving and growing so that it can be copied everywhere.

We believe that we are the first in South Africa and possibly in the whole of Africa to prove empirically that fresh food hunger and cash starvation in urban centers is entirely avoidable, even in the worst situations. Hundreds and thousands of uneducated, unemployable people - with your help - are right now setting up and running their micro-farms on very very tiny plots, on wasteland, at home and in community gardens, sustain-ably and cheaply. And these tiny micro-farms , built on any bit of wasteland, are also creating hundreds of genuine permanent self-help jobs among the unemployable for the first time in South Africa !!

Remember that there is no farmer in the world- especially big farmers - who can survive without a minimum of permanent subsidized support. And this goes also for family micro-farmers among the poor, who need so little -only ZAR 100 per month or USD 13 per month - to provide the essential services which they cannot afford.

So thank you one and all, all and one, for your kind and excellent support.

I look forward to posting more reports in future and wish you all the very best !!

Rob Small

P.S. dont forget to come visit on a Tuesday morning 9am-12pm, every Tuesday, if you are in Cape Town. Tuesday is market day and visitors day combined!!

Dear Friends,

ABALIMI won GOLD at the national Impumelelo Innovations for Sustainability Awards 2010 – see www.impumelelo.org.za , certificate attached and follow the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMaBAwjvHtc to the lovely little video clip done by Impumelelo which was shown on award night.

Mama Kaba and Bridget make a great representing pair, and it was they who went on stage to receive the award for all of us.

Viva ABALIMI- Harvest of Hope from seed to table viva!!

And VIVA to our Friends and Donors now and over the many many years past , also over the many years to come, who have helped and will hopefully still help to launch and spread the micro-farming movement !!!!!

Best regards

Rob Small Resource mobilization for ABALIMI

www.abalimi.org.za www.harvestofhope.co.za www.farmgardentrust.org

Links:

• video clip

Hello again all

To add to my previous report which I just posted a few minutes ago, I append the latest ABALIMI Friends newsletter # 36 in case you would like to download it direct from Global Giving, instead of visiting the Abalimi website.

I also add the link to the Farm and Garden National Trust, which I launched recently to source more local individual donations for the micro-farming movement , using (and supporting) Abalimi as the national role model, now that big corporate funding locally and worldwide is becoming less available for genuine development.

May the new ecological Family Farming movement thrive and grow in your own backyard!

All the best Rob

Links:

• Farm & Garden Trust

• ABALIMI Friends Newsletter # 36 (PDF)

Hello everyone !

Five of you donated very recently over R1700 USD which amounted to R12 784 !! That makes it possible to provide a full range of support ( infrastructure and bulk inputs supply, trees and indigenous plants, training and follow-up, monitoring and evaluation, marketing and management support) to one farmer for 127 months, or 127 farmers for one month !! Thank you thank you thank you!! PLEASE COME VISIT and see what you are doing to change the way grassroots South Africa works! - a Green Carpet Tour is ALWAYS waiting for you on any Tuesday , every Tuesday, which is our market day, between 9an-12pm.

Please remember that, unless you specifically suggest it, I will not to directly communicate with you. But I will always welcome your questions and comments !! So please fire away.

Abalimi is a finalist in the national Impumelelo Innovations for Sustainability Awards, www.impumelelo.org.za . Please hold thumbs for us, since this award is one of the most genuine in the world. We will know on the 16th May. But even making it to the finals is a huge honor, so we will not be disappointed if we dont "win" one of the actual awards.

For more insights about our work, please check out the attached latest article - its lovely. And also read our latest newsletter (# 36) on our website www.abalimi.org.za - see links below. All the very best- Rob

Links:

• Abalimi website
• Harvest of Hope website
• Impumelelo Innovations Award

• Country Life mag article March 10 (PDF)
  

Dear Friends of ABALIMI via Global Giving

Thank you to 3 USA friends for USD 287 / ZAR 2200 (!!) in October 2009 and 3 UK friends between Sept 09-Dec 09 for GBP 113 / ZAR 1400 (!!). Altogether ZAR 3600, enough to provide our full suite of essential services (cheap inputs, training and follow-up, monitoring and evaluation, marketing value chain) to at least 3 micro-farmers for a full year!

Remember that *all* farmers need support, or none of us would eat. The so-called "commercial industrial farmers" of the world are more often than not heavily subsidized by our governments , or given very special structural support deals in the countries in which they operate, which amounts to the same thing. These same commercial farmers cost us the earth because they use up much more energy and resources than they produce.

Our organic micro-farmers need very very little support - not more than USD15 per month. With this they feed whole communities while building up and conserving the natural environment, sinking tons of carbon and making thousands of people healthy through eating really high quality fresh food. And all this is done among the undereducated and unemployable poor.

Just read the articles in my most recent previous postings.

And if you come to Cape Town, come on one of my Tuesday "from seed to table" tours, from 9am-12pm every Tuesday. Let me know in advance though.

I will be back , but in the meantime please do ask questions, please do read the articles I have posted, please do say "hello" if you are in Cape Town.

And to the Global Giving team in USA and UK- thank you hugely for the enormous task you fulfill and the excellent work you do for us all.

Because of you all I can say Viva micro-farmers and family farmers among the poor in Cape Town!!

All the best for 2010!!

Rob

Hello everyone!!

Please See the attached articles to get an idea of the coverage we are getting!!

Thanks again to you, our Global Giving Friends, and the Global Giving Team !! Until next time! rob

• Delivery mag goes to all municipal decision makers countrywide (PDF)
• Mail and Guardian is the leading news for SA intelligensia (PDF)
  
• Green Times is a new mainstream newsheet (PDF)
  

Thank you to three people who donated just over USD270 in May and June- about ZAR1700 which will give training support to 17 farmers for one month or 1 farmer for 17 months, or a full start-up training to one new farmer. During the last 12 months you all helped us to provide training and resource support to over 3000 micro-farmers!

For those of you who like to read technical stuff, please take a look at our newly composed Harvest of Hope business plan attached. Its very exciting stuff!! There is also a financial and production plan available, and you only need to ask me and I will send them as well. I know that this kind of stuff is not what most people want to see, but I thought I would take a chance and put it here anyway, as I dont have any new articles at the moment.

All the best! Rob

• Harvest of Hope Business Plan (DOC)

Hello everyone- sorry its taken so long to say a HEARTY THANK YOU to all of you for the wonderful donations - over R12000 since March 09 from 18 people. I am not allowed to mention names here unless you specifically say I can, but you all know who you are are!

These funds keep at least 70 micro-farmers supported with on-site training, resource supply, mentorship and even marketing help, for one month. Or put another way, your collective R12000 supports one micro-farmer with all of the above for 70 months!!

Remember that all farmers need special assistance. American and European commercial farmers get huge subsidies, otherwise they would collapse and no-one would have food.

So your help to Abalimi assists scores of emerging micro-farmers to learn to feed their families and their communities, who otherwise cannot get fresh food every day. And the food they grow and eat is top quality organic, so it makes people strong and healthy at the same time as nice and full!!

I attach a couple of new articles for your to read. Enjoy!!

All the best. Rob Small

Links:

• recent IRIN news story

• A nice article published in a local newspaper (PDF)
  
• A recent article in SABI mag (PDF)
  

Dear Friends, With the economic downturn and increasing unemployment in South Africa, growing your own food is becoming more popular!!

Take a peek at

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=82899

and read all about Abalimi in the international news!!

We are ever more busy, training people like mad, at all levels - Survival level, Subsistence Level, Livelihood Level and even at Commercial Level!!

Your help continues to be VITAL , so thank you one and all for "pulling in"!

The latest amounts (Nov and Dec 08) that came through from quite a number of good people, including our dear friend Grace (who visited Abalimi in 2008) amounted to over R10 500.00 !!!

Thank you for staying with us on the "long road to health and prosperity through organic micro-farming among the poor!!"

Please read our latest Harvest of Hope newsletter attached , which is written to clients of Harvest of Hope, to give you a feel for how our marketing end is going!

Remember- the training you have sponsored makes it all happen!!

All good blessings for 2009- may your own gardens flourish!!

Yours in true development Rob Small for ABALIMI www.abalimi.org.za www.harvestofhope.co.za

Links:

• Artcile in IRIN News Feb 09

• Harvest of Hope newsletter to clients (PDF)
  

Hello Dear Friends of Global Giving!

In late October I received notice from Manmeet Mehta of Global Giving that 6 people and one organisation had together donated $2,864.85 during August and September !!! This is the largest amount yet and comes to a whopping ZAR 28730.00. That is a LOT of training and resources to our emerging farmers. Thank you so much.

In the meantime, please take a peek at our refreshed website on www@abalimi.org.za and also our latest newsletter attached!!

All the very best to you and yours for the Christmas period. We at Abalimi will be continuing in our fields and gardens in support of the poor- who will celebrate Christmas with LOTS of healthy fresh food as part of the festive treat!! And, of course, good farmers seldom go away from their land for long!!

All the very best Rob for ABALIMI

• Friends Newsletter # 35- its a treat!! (PDF)
  

Dear GlobalGiving Friends - six of you have donated a total of USD 466.84 in May and June, which was deposited into the ABALIMI account in late July 08. Some of you donated more than once!! Your Dollars translate to many more Rands- over R3000 in this case!

This is just to say thank you - your help and support and interest is more than the money you give, but the money represents this, and carries with it enormous powers of encouragement and blessing! Right now more poor people are being trained to grow fresh food sustainably because of you.

I am working on our next Friends newsletter, which will be full of pictures and stories. I will post this for you on Global Giving as soon as it is available- probably in early October.

All the very best- Rob Small

Hello again!! Sorry I have taken so long to post another report.

I want to say a big thank you to all those donors who have given over USD700 in March and April. I cant quite believe it and am very grateful indeed for your interest and support. Please remember that if you want to communicate directly with me, all you have to do is say so, by e-mailing directly to me at info@abalimi.org.za. Please dont forget to state who you are and that you have come via GlobalGiving. I will be delighted to correspond. The GlobalGiving privacy policy quite rightly prevents any project leader communicating directly with you unless you request it.

Its been hectic in ABALIMI lately. Since February 08 we launched our new Harvest of Hope flagship initiative and it is pumping! The community farmers AND the clients are all galvanised by it and we are growing the scheme shortly to supply over 200 organic boxes every week because demand to join (from both sides) is so strong. I attach an updated brochure on Harvest of Hope for your interest.

Of course, everything is about training- for example- each time we contract a new farmer, we are training him/her at the same time about contracting.

So your money is being well spent.

I am also attaching a nice article written on ABALIMI recently by the Organic Gardeners magazine in Australia and New Zealand. Do take a peek, its nicely done and speaks about the social benefits of what we do in ABALIMI, which to my mind are the MOST improtant.

I also want to point out that SEED has gone independent of ABALIMI (which is great- they are getting strong) and now have their own offering in GlobalGiving. I nominated them ! I have yet to update ABALIMI's offering to this effect because it means a complete re-write of the ABALIMI offering which I find daunting. But if you want to support SEED specifically, please do go direct to them, they will love you for it!! Of course, ABALIMI passes their portion of any donations from you on to them in the meantime.

Lastly I want to say a HUGE thank you to the GlobalGiving staff (Siama and Dana in particular) for all their hard work to make such a special interface possible and workable. Its always improving and I know they literally work their hearts out to make it so. They are dedicated and wonderful and helpful people.

So, until next time, I suggest that anyone out there who is not growing some healthy organic vegetables in pots on their windowsill or in soil direct, why dont you get going? You will experience a miracle which will make you strong, alive and best of all really "connected".

Green and growing greetings! Rob Small for ABALIMI info@abalimi.org.za www.abalimi.org.za

P.S. I have also attached an "Abalimi Overview" which gives another take on our work. May be useful.

• Harvest of Hope updated brochure (PDF)
  
• Organic Gardeners Magazine article May/June 08 (PDF)
  
• ABALIMI quick overview update Mar08 (DOC)

Dear friends, I attach a thank you letter to those who donated over 600 USD via Global Giving in December 07. Along with the letter I attach a brochure on Harvest of Hope, our new "farmers market" scheme, which is the result of all that good training we can give to the farmers because of your help! Many thanks, once again. Rob Small- for Abalimi Bezekhaya (Planters of the Home)

• Thank you letter for December 07 donations (DOC)
• Harvest of Hope- attachment to thank you letter for Dec 07 donat (PDF)
  

Hello everyone and also to all of you who have contributed to Abalimi because of Grace Wong! Just to let you know that she and Flavia (her friend from her church community) came and visited Abalimi. She says she will report back to you as soon as she gets back to the States. It was really good to meet Grace and show her around a bit. She should have quite a few photos to share with you! She visited a few of the community gardens and also attended our 25 Year Birthday celebration, where over 200 community gardeners and micro-farmers came to enjoy an end-of-year meal with the staff of Abalimi!

Secondly, I am posting a brochure for you to read about an exiting new initiative, which Abalimi is launching called Harvest of Hope. Harvest of Hope is very much a capacity building initiative, as well as a social business, so it fits in perfectly with our current project. Its a pdf file and I hope it shows up on the GlobalGiving website ok. If not, please let me know.

Thirdly, I am posting a couple of articles I wrote, which appeared in a couple of national and international publications. Hope you can access them and hope you find them interesting!

This may be the last you hear from me in 2007, although it is possible that I may get a chance to post another update before Christmas. If not, I wish you all the very best for Christmas and for 2008.

As ever Rob Small

• Harvest of Hope- Abalimi's latest capacity building project (PDF)
  
• Article published by Alternative Technology mag UK (PDF)
  
• Article for the SA Corporate Social Responsibility Handbook (PDF)
  

Dear Friends I have just recieved notice from Dana Ledyard of Global Giving that USD 299.54 is being transferred to our project. This amount has come from 9 donors and will be enough to train at least two people in organic micro-farming and working with kids in the outdoor classroom, who in turn will affect the lives of many hundreds.

If any of you would like to check out our latest Friends Newsletter (# 34), please go to www@abalimi.org.za and read for yourself the results we are getting. If you would like a hardcopy, please send me your request and postal details to info@abalimi.org.za ! I will post you a hardcopy and thereafter you will get a Friends Newsletter in the mail twice a year.

It is a very special and wonderful thing that you, who live virtually on the other side of the planet, care enough to put their own money into our work. This is deeply inspiring to me!

Thank you one and all!!

best regards Rob Small

P.S. One of you, Grace Wong (hi Grace!), is coming to visit us in November. I and the rest of the team are looking forward to meeting her. Perhaps she will also post a report on her experience afterwards!

Being a freelance photographer, Kate Pesendorfer had the opportunity to join Vatiswa Dunjana and Liziwe Stofile, two urban agriculture fieldworkers from Abalimi, on a day tour to see their trainees. I had the privilege to meet six extraordinary people, who inspired her. Rob Small, Resource Mobilisation Manager and his crew, showed her through their work – how they not only train people but how the seeds they plant are nurtured by them.

Lucky strikes luck in ‘Garden Eden’

Coming from a farm in a rural area of the Eastern Cape, unemployed Lucky Solofute (28) was diagnosed with TB. After his treatment at Phumlani clinic in the township Philippi in Cape Town, he found out he was also infected with AIDS.

One day, he saw an old lady working in the garden of the clinic. Lucky felt sorry for her and wanted to help Maggie with the strenuous work. Reaching out a helping hand to Maggie, Lucky started working voluntarily in the garden for two months. Maggie retired and Lucky gladly took over her duties. Fresh air and eating his own planted vegetables, says Lucky, are supplements to his medication. Exercise makes him feel strong and confident instead of sitting at home, which makes him tired. He reports health benefits and strength. The clinic helped Lucky to receive a government grant for his HIV sickness and he in turn supports his sister and her three children. The produce of the garden is used for his own needs, his sisters and the people at the clinic.

Lucky enjoyed a four-day course with Abalimi, where he learned to manage and fertilise soil properly. In the Eastern Cape, you can only plant during the rainy season, whereas in Cape Town, crops can grow continuously. Lucky is now supported by the NGO Ikamwa La Bantu with R600 monthly, which might last until he is self-sufficient and has his own business. Lucky’s dream is to extend his space at the clinic garden but the others, who have the other part of the ground, won’t let him – he doesn’t give up.

One plot – two stories

At the crèche ‘Kumbulani Educare’, in Section I, in the township of Khayelitsha in Cape Town, a social development scheme has been initiated by ‘old’ people to utilise space to create a garden. Senior citizens were advised to find a location for this garden. This project was started in 2005 by Ikamwa La Bantu and Social Development (?).

Vuyisile Qotoyi (67), a member of the old-age group, says old people should not sleep all day but exercise. Vuyisile thrives on working outside, exercising and staying healthy. He joined in 2006 and did a course with Abalimi the same year. He loved learning how to work with vegetables. Melons and pumpkins were, at the time, all he knew from farming in the Western Cape. Vuyisile is so proud that, beside the garden at the crèche, he has his own at home. Vuyisile’s wife is unemployed and he supports four. He receives a pension from the government and is hoping for a stipend (from Ikamwa La Bantu).

Mzukisi Vokwana (50) is the ‘doctor’ of the garden – he wears surgical gloves at work. He always wanted to plough and when Mzukisi came in 1985 from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town, he fulfilled his dream. In 2005 the founder of the crèche recruited Mzukisi and today he is one of the two main co-ordinators of the garden. Six men and one woman work the garden, which belongs to them. The produce is for their own usage, parts of it is given to the crèche, the old-age home and the rest is sold to HIV/Aids. They raise between R 50 to R100 with the sales. None of the group is infected but they are all affected by the garden in being able to produce for their own livelihood.

Mzukisi did a course with Abalimi and is proud to work his first own garden. He loves eating his own fresh veggies.

Thanks to all donors who have supported ABALIMI to date

• Thank you to ABALIMI donors Mar 07 (DOC)

Abalimi has been making use of the Agriplanner Board Game, developed by the South African Institute for Entrepreneurs, to train both literate and illiterate gardeners about agricultural business. The training has been most successful, with Mrs Bokolo’s story demonstrating some of the amazing benefits of this training.

Mrs Bokolo, who continues to grow her own vegetables at Nolukhanyo Educare Preschool, has taken her new knowledge from the Agriplanner further than Abalimi had anticipated. Mrs Bokolo attended the Agriplanner training in July 2005, and she says that she uses the marketing tools that she learnt from the Agriplanner training in her own bead business. Since having done the Agriplanner training, she has gone to Claremont, Newlands and Mowbray to market her crafts herself. Her efforts were rewarded with business contracts from two shops for which she has to produce a certain amount of crafts every month.

Through the Agriplanner training, Mrs Bokolo has learnt a number of important business skills. These include how to reinvest money back into her business, to structure her money carefully, and that it is very important to meet deadlines for orders.

As a single mother, the money that Mrs Bokolo makes from her bead business is used to send her children to school and to buy groceries and furniture for her home.

Abalimi is supporting members of HIV/AIDS support groups to establish and maintain their own vegetable gardens. Vegetable gardens of this nature are currently flourishing at the Guguletu Health Clinic and the Philangetemba Khayelitsha Hospice.

In the corner of NY1 and NY3 in Nyanga, you will find beds of lush green vegetables within the premises of the Guguletu Health Clinic. This garden is run by the members of the HIV support group, Sakeka, and supported by Abalimi.

The six gardeners at Sakeka all share the status of being HIV positive. Their community garden is a safe environment where they can help each other to cope with the repercussions of being HIV positive. Through gardening, the Sakeka group are empowering themselves to tackle the devastating health affects of their illness. As project member Mxolisi Nimrod Gwele said, “My health has improved from the nutritious vegetables and exercise I get from my gardening.” The energy and spirit that these individuals have shown is truly inspirational.

Philangethemba, otherwise known as the Khayelitsha Hospice, is a support home for HIV positive people in the third and fourth stages of the disease. The Philangetemba vegetable garden is only three months old, but Pinky Ciya, the social worker, is very excited about the benefits that it has already given to the members of the support group.

In Philangetemba, the support group members participate in the gardening every Tuesday. “We use the vegetables from the garden to provide the support group with a meal when they come to visit, and members of the support group can also take some vegetables from the garden home with them,” says Pinky. “Nutrition plays a very important role in the treatment of AIDS and this way the members are learning the skills to start their own gardens at home.” “Working in a garden helps the members to learn about team work.” Pinky says, “In this garden, everyone follows the motto EACH ONE TEACH ONE.”