Gardening Opportunities

‘We have the congregation but the problem is they are not fit and healthy; they are old and pensioners. There is much unemployment and few professionals such as those who work for the Government. Others work far away in Jo’Burg or Pretoria and may only be back at the month’s end’. Joyce Ditato, as articulate and effective spokesperson for the Garden scheme at St Augustine’s, Gaanalaagte, explains some of the reasons why the Garden has no longer been tended and cultivated. The vegetable gardens seem a great idea as a means of involving the unemployed and providing nutritious vegetables as well as generating some income for the poor and needy. Many churches have a plot of land beside their building for this purpose but I haven’t seen evidence of them being sustained. Is this something we could help with? A group could come and give it a once over as a sign of encouragement. Archdeacon Guma doesn’t think this is such a good idea. ‘If the people themselves are not motivated to keep it going then the same thing will just happen again’.