A sustainable food supply for Noahs Arks

NEED

South Africa, with an estimated 5.7 million infected people, has the largest HIV-positive population in the world. Many parents are dying before their children reach adulthood. As a result, South Africa is and, to an increasing extent, will be, a country populated by a large number of orphans. Findings from the 2007 General Household Survey substantiate this – according to the report there are approximately 3.7 million orphans in South Africa. This includes children without a living biological mother, father or both parents and equates to 20% of all children in South Africa . This is creating a humanitarian challenge on a scale that no nation has ever faced before.

Nurturing Orphans of AIDS for Humanity (Noah) has developed a strategy using “Arks”, which are designed as support structures for extended families and other carers of orphans and vulnerable children. They are made up of community members and volunteers, and are supported by Noah head office. Many of these Arks rely on growing their own food to reduce the cost of buying groceries. This is an important part of their sustainability strategy. This project seeks to assist three Arks in Eshowe to establish food gardens, thus allowing them to develop a low cost source of nutritious food for the children that they support.

OVERVIEW

Arks provide community-based training, capacity building and income generation opportunities, enabling their communities to better care for orphaned and vulnerable children. Opportunities are also given to the children to improve their education and physical and cognitive development enabling them to mature into stronger, more capable and more effective adults.

Food gardens are an important part of the sustainability strategy of the Arks. The gardens reduce the cost of food and improve levels of nutrition. Three Arks in Eshowe currently operate without a Vegetable garden on site. These Arks have available land and access to running water as well as volunteers that are willing to dedicate their time to the gardens and ensure that the gardens are well maintained. However, all three are lacking the resources and funding to start their own vegetable gardens. These three Arks are doing their best to maintain and sustain the nutrition programmes that they provide to their registered children. (South Africa Statistics. Children Count. 2009. Available www.childrencount.ci.org.za)

WHAT WE LIKE ABOUT THIS PROJECT

• Noah’s research shows that Arks can save up to R900 per month with established food gardens.
• The size of land available to these three Arks is enough to sustain their nutrition programmes as well as to supply some others in the community with food parcels.
• Each Ark has the support and commitment of the community where it operates including local traditional leaders
• Training is provided for the community on the needs of children and in turn recruits a volunteer group. Once an Ark has been set up Noah proceeds to incrementally provide further resources for the care and support of the children during the day – to unload the extended family.
• Arks are run by paid Noah staffers from the community. As the community develop, they are encouraged to take over greater responsibility for the programme.
• Noah maintains strong monitoring and financial controls and oversight on each Ark.

IMPACT HIGHLIGHTS

Based on experience from other Arks, children are inspired by the successful planting and growth of fruit and vegetables, which allows them to see that through their small actions they can contribute to their own well being. This lesson goes beyond the concept of food security and contributes to emotional and psychological wellbeing. The vegetable gardens not only meet the needs of the nutrition programme, but are further able to support the needs of the volunteers and provide food parcels to others in need in the community.

The establishment of the three vegetable gardens will result in an estimated direct life change with a value of R65.35 per person.

ORGANISATIONAL CAPACITY

Noah was conceptualised at the end of 2000 as a response to South Africa’s impending orphan crisis. The organisation believes that the sheer number of orphans in the country rules out traditional charitable or institutional models of care and that only a model rooted in teaching and empowering communities to care for their own orphans has any chance of being sustainable and successfully scaled to the size required.

Noah’s overall goal is to support communities to improve the quality of life of orphaned and vulnerable children and their families, with particular emphasis on their health, education and economic wellbeing. They demonstrate a concrete understanding of the available research and prevailing trends of the HIV pandemic in South Africa communities. Noah understands the social issue that it seeks to address well and has clearly defined target beneficiaries. It works closely with communities to enhance existing support systems for the benefit of orphaned and vulnerable children.

To date, Noah has supported 101 communities in rural and urban locations to mobilise and provide for the nutritional, psycho-social, and educational needs of 30,000 children. The support offered through the Arks has enabled these children to concentrate better in class, learn more, play more and generally improve their quality of life.

RISK PROFILE

Key Strengths

• Design: the strong relationships and commitment of the communities where Arks are located ensures continuity of the project over time. Established networks provide a range of services for each Ark and provides beneficiaries with additional resources for suitable care and support
• Control: Noah insists on strict recording and reporting on all financials at each Ark, and there are appropriate governance structures in place throughout the organisation
• Sustainability: Noah’s ability to leverage financial and non financial support from its stakeholders and partners means that the Arks are sustainable. In addition, the training and formal support provided by Noah will help them become more independent.

Key Risks - Low

• Capability: the long term maintenance of the vegetable gardens will depend on the continued availability of volunteers from the community. The limited allocation for a skilled gardener means that the Arks will depend on diverse levels of knowledge and might affect the continuity of the garden over time.