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8.7 Nutrition Project
Since the beginning of March 2010, HOPE Cape Town has been running a nutrition project in
Blikkiesdorp in cooperation with the organisation Abalimi Bezekhaya. Their program “Harvest of
Hope” assists local township farmers with the marketing and sales of their organically produced
vegetables. Since the initiation of the cooperation, 10 vegetable bags are delivered to Blikkiesdorp
every Wednesday. In cooking demonstrations, women from the community are taught how to keep
themselves and their families healthy through a balanced nutrition. The women take vegetables
home each week and exchange recipes and cooking methods in the following session. In order to
make the project sustainable, the participants receive basic training in gardening and small-scale
vegetable farming before leaving the program.
Students of human nutrition from the Hochschule Niederrhein, University of Applied Sciences in
Mönchengladbach, Germany, regularly assist with their expertise as well as the monitoring and
evaluation of the project.
8.8 Beading Project
A group of 6 women meets once a week for beading work which is sold as an income for the group
members. Whilst meeting and doing the beading they utilize the time to discuss relevant topics
affecting their lives including HIV and other health related issues and also providing emotional
support to one another. This group plans to expand to include a needle work and sewing project as
well.
8.9 Soup kitchen
Since May 2011, two previous participants of the nutrition project run a soup kitchen for the sick and
the elderly every Thursday. The soup is made from leftovers of Wednesday’s vegetables and
donated food. They cater for about 50 people, many of whom suffer from TB.
8.10 Soccer teams
The Delft/ Blikkiesdorp sponsors Hope & Future e.V. have previously supported the local youth
soccer teams (Blikkiesdorp United FC) with gear, balls, registration fees and transport costs, and wish
to continue doing so in the future. The teams are doing well in their respective leagues. The coach is
very committed and his personal goal is to keep the youth away from the streets (i.e. crime and
drugs). His vision could be taken further by training him in HIV & AIDS counselling via UNISA and
enabling him to educate his players about the disease and how to prevent infection.
In the future we would like to expand the above services to also include the following programs:
8.11 Income generating activities
The unemployment rate in Blikkiesdorp is incredibly high (unfortunately, there are no official
statistics but 80% seems to be a realistic estimate). There are no job opportunities in the nearby
vicinity and public transport is scarce and expensive. Most people have no or little formal education
or professional training.
The introduction of income generating activities (IGA) for unemployed community members would
- provide them with some skills
- help them to (re)gain their independence from government grants
- help raise their standard of living
- create a sense of dignity, pride and ownership
- prepare them to (re)enter the formal labour market
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