Tsakani – The Rockville Community Forum launched its home gardening project in partnership with the Rockville Men’s Forum, Ponto-Mpate (a burial society) and the Rockville Day Care Centre on July 20.
Locals and church leaders attended the launch, and guest speakers gave encouraging words and spoke about the importance of gardening, unity and teamwork.
Nomvuyo Mpuqa led and founded the gardening initiative that launched at the Christian Life Care Centre church in Rockville. The gardening project received help from the Nobomi Foundation, an NPO that aims to combat social issues in the Kwatsaduza community.
“I am grateful for the help received from Nobomi Tshongweni under her foundation. She provided financial support towards our project launch and raised awareness in the community by creating a poster. She further assisted in ensuring everything was executed as planned,” said Mpuqa.
Mpuqa said launching a gardening project in her area has been a part of her dream of community work after she noticed many people are unemployed and often fail to provide food for their families.
“It is crucial for the project to feed as many people as possible in this community. The plan is to harvest nutritious food for the Rockville Day Care Centre beneficiaries. The end goal is to provide the elders with food and for each home to benefit from the garden.
“The garden will yield roots for us to give to each household in Rockville, for each home to have its own little home garden that will sustain families in need with food,” Mpuqa cited.
She added that they would also educate the community, youth and young children on how to look after their plants, the needs of a garden and how to harvest.
“It is important for us to teach the younger generation about the benefits of food planting,” she added.
The vegetables planted in the garden are cabbage, eggplant, spinach and beetroot.
“Our garden is not as big as we want it to be. We still plead with the community to assist us with seeds, roots, plants, flower pots and other essentials that can assist our garden,” Mpuqa said.
For enquiries and donations, call Mpuqa on 084 065 0362.
