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For many South Africans, Human Rights Day has become an important day of commemoration. Our organisation has joined other South Africans in commemorating this important event in a rather creative way.
The South African National Zakah Fund (SANZAF) unveiled its plans to promote food security when it launched its Food Garden Waqf initiative on Human Rights Day on Saturday 21 March 2009. The organisation has recruited volunteers from various schools across Gauteng and will commence the first leg of the campaign by constructing several greenhouses.
The innovative greenhouse project will be undertaken by grade eleven learners and at least eight greenhouses will be built from used and recycled plastic bottles. The participating schools have already started collecting bottles for the project and each school is expected to put up at least one greenhouse, constructed from 1500 plastic bottles.
Schools approached by SANZAF in Gauteng welcomed the idea of the campaign the first time they heard about it. They immediately saw the link between food security and human rights and decided that they wanted to be part of the initiative. SANZAF’s vision is to balance the emphasis on Human Rights Day from a focus on exclusively political activities to a focus on the development imperative.
People died on this day in history in the name of freedom, dignity and self-determination. Even though South Africans have political freedom, there is a still a dire need to restore the dignity of people by facilitating food security.
SANZAF is the largest Muslim NGO in South Africa and its work covers a significant range of welfare related activities, with a strong emphasis on empowerment. The Food Garden Waqf is SANZAF’s most recent initiative designed to empower poor communities to look after themselves by growing their own food.
SANZAF has already established several successful community gardens and is now expanding this programme to other communities. The next phase is to take the Food Garden Waqf programme to several schools and to develop a model for using schools as a base for the community gardens in poor communities.
Anyone who wishes to contribute to the Food Garden Waqf project may contact SANZAF at 0861 726923.
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The SANZAF diary is more than just a
year-book with pages for daily appointments. After 25 years the diary has been
developed into a powerful tool for the executive, scholar, housewife and a
range of other users.
