Back in Blighty...

I left a sunny, warm, blue skied Cape Town on Sunday evening and landed in a grey, cold Manchester on Monday morning. Still - after a great and inspiring 3 weeks - it was good to be home.

I was also pleased to have a couple of publications waiting in my inbox which will help share the learning from my fellowship.

The first is an article based on learning from the North American leg of my trip which I wrote for the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) 'New Start' publication. You can access this CLES publication here.

The second is a feature on social capital which I wrote for Altogether Better's National Newsletter (see page 8). The newsletter also features an article on Asset Based Community Development, showcasing some of the work undertaken by our Sheffield project and an interview with ABCD expert, Cormac Russell (see page 7). Click here to download the newsletter.

A new take on ABCD - Asset Based Citizen Led Development?

The Ikhala Trust in Port Elizabeth is small grants funder that is all about identifying and mobilising community assets. Thier vision is to, "build self reliant, secure and virbrant communities through a holistic, sustainable and positive intervention." Through the provision of small grants to community organisations, Ikhala enables and empowers communities to gain what they need by building on what they have (to paraphrase Moses Coady!).

Mrs Bono (Seki) and Bernie Dolley (Ikhala)

I spent a useful and informative day with Bernie Dolley, Director of Ikhala. Bernie told me that, "the importance of human relations is at the heart of what Ikhala does" and that what people value most is, "to be respected, listened to and appreciated". So Ikhala is about building some central elements of social capital - networks, relationships and trust. As an organisation they see people as 'asset rich', which Bernie sees as essential to enabling change.

Bernie went on to tell me that Ikhala,  "works on the principle of sowing where people have already laid a foundation."  A grant will not be given unless social cohesion and mobilization are already demonstrated by the community, so the  grants reinforce and build on communities existing assets and mobilization. This approach differs from mainstream development approaches that tend to focus on deficits oriented and release large sums of money to  fill deficit gaps 



I asked Bernie about Ikhala's use of Asset Based approaches. ABCD commonly stands for Asset Based Community Development but Ikhala prefer to talk about Asset Based Citizen Led Development.  Bernie likes to think of ABCD as,  "an attitude and a state of mind - not a system to be followed." She went on, "It's more about how you see and value the world."  Appreciative Inquiry is one of the tools commonly used in ABCD and Ikhala have used this from the beginning to ask questions of communities using an asset based lens - such as:

• What are we proud of about our communities?
• Who has inspired us?

Bernie says she is often deeply humbled by people's responses to these questions and by the range of assets and resources they bring - especially as these are people from very poor communities who are often deemed to have 'nothing'. She sees ABCD as ultimately being about giving power to people in communities - which aims to, "shift the culture from one of dependency to one of hopes and inspiration." and Ikhala clearly has a role in enabling that to happen in the Eastern Cape. You can read more about Ikhala's work here.

Volunteer (aged 80!) cooking up meals

Whilst grants are relatively small in terms of financial contribution, they enable communities to make a big difference. We visited the Seki Women's Foundation which Ikhala helps to fund. They provide meals to local people from the New Brighten township (where they are located) 3 days a week. The local school also sends pupils identified in need  of a meal (school meals are not provided in state schools in the area). Mrs Bono, the founder of Seki, told me, "I know and am glad these children get to eat 3 days a week....but I have no idea what they do for food on other days. It's really a worry...". Many of the children were dressed in school uniforms and shoes that were in a poor state and really needed replacing. Ikhala also helps by providing school shoes and clothing for the children where possible.

Getting a good meal at the Seki Foundation

The Seki project's 'soup kitchen' is run by a small group of older women (some in their 80s) who prepare, cook and serve the hot meals. Bernie explained how they keep a register of who attends and so, if someone is missing, they will visit the home or make enquiries about their well being to make sure all is well. They also try to identify people who may be unwell or in need of some other support and signpost them to other sources of help where needed. They also have a role in identifying children who may be having problems at home and will alert the necessary services. In addition to providing the meals, the Seki Centre also has a community garden in the grounds which provides some of the food for the meals. All Ikhala projects are encouraged to have a community garden to help address issues of food poverty and encourage sustainability.

The Goodness of Gardening

On Wednesday this week, I spent an inspiring and thought provoking morning with Rob Small of Abalimi Bezekhaya ('Farmers of Hope') in Cape Town.

Abalimi is an urban micro-farming organization operating in the townships of Cape Town. Abalimi teaches people how to create their own garden, grow - and potentially sell - their own vegetables, and feed their families.

Abalimi means "the Planters" in Xhosa, the predominant language among the target communities worked with. Through a series of programs, Abalimi helps to alleviate poverty (though increased food security and generation of jobs / income), empower communities and promote a better state of wellbeing. As Albalimi's newsletter (Sept 2009) states, this is often challenging work in communities where people are very poor and, in trying to survive, are, "often divided and disempowered, easily distracted and always looking for greener pastures."

However, almost 30 years since Albalimi began, it continues to support both home gardens, through providing people with training, advice, seedlings and manure to help establish their own gardens and also larger, community gardens. Through the home gardening projects, people gain more confidence and are able to move on and build themselves a new life.  

We visited two of the community gardens and met some of the farmers and gardeners, all working hard to tend the crops. Some of the produce from the community gardens is sold to the veg box scheme which supplies locally produced, reasonably priced, organic vegetables to customers in Cape Town. It also provides the farmers with an income and an incentive to keep farming!  As Rob explained, for these people, the garden is not just a 'nice to have', it is central to sustainability and poverty reduction. The gardens also provide an opportunity for community members to come together and to work together for both their individual benefit (through increased physical activity, improved healthy eating, social interaction, learning to run a business, etc) and for the greater good of the community (much of the produce is shared with community members).

Can you help?

It costs just £60 to establish one new township home vegetable garden or a new community market garden (including training, trees and follow up support). Please do consider a donation if you can support this fantastic work.

Want to know more?

You can view a CNN clip about Abalimi 's work, as explained by one farmer leader Christina Kaba here.

'We are Abalimi. We are the Farmers.' is a short documentary film about Albalimi made by American volunteer Matt Miller and Travis Blue. View it here.