A story from our friends at Uthando South Africa
During 2020 and the Covid-19 crisis, led by the vision and inspiration of Thapelo, these five very dedicated young men had the commitment to start a garden at the Sibongile Centre for children with cerebral palsy to provide fresh, healthy organic vegetables to the centre and feed their families. The knowledge and experience of the young men grew rapidly, and so did the garden.
The garden started selling vegetables through the Abalimi Bezekhaya program called “Harvest of Hope”, thus ensuring that the micro farmers could also make a living out of urban farming.Around March 2022, Uthando discovered the magnificent garden. We introduced a local tour operator Timeless Africa Safaris to the garden in November 2022, and they subsequently adopted the garden with monthly financial support for their efforts and raised awareness of the garden.
During July 2023, Uthando hosted a family from Canada, and one of the projects visited was Feed the Khaltsha; the family wrote after the excursion, “This has been a life-changing experience for our family. We can see who are the people that are doing amazing work to help South Africans”.
The family also made a generous donation to Uthando, which was split between the five projects they visited during the excursion. The guys from Feed the Kaltsha invested the money into their garden, and the letter they wrote to the family is truly heartwarming and reflective of the power of tourism to impact change and improve lives at a grassroots level.
CEO of Timeless Africa Safaris, Marco van Embden, sent a newsletter out to their clients with the following note :
“The organic garden in Khayelitsha, which we support in your name as a valued Africa Ambassador, is thriving... Last week, Casey and my granddaughters went for a visit to Feed the Khaltsha... she said: 'It was incredible to see how much the garden has grown and expanded, how passionate these young entrepreneurs are, and what a brilliant job they are doing for themselves and their community.'