Cape Town - Local environmental environmental non-profit organisation Greenpop aims to help young gardeners in under-green communities create a fynbos corridor across the Cape Flats by planting gardens at schools through their Fynbos for the Future project.
Instead of taking youngsters to Kirstenbosch, Greenpop brought Kirstenbosch to them with this project, which formed part of the broader Fynbos Corridor Collaboration – a network of indigenous gardens in public and private spaces across the Western Cape.
Fynbos for the Future project manager Deon Louw said: “We partner with schools to provide an interactive fynbos learning space where we implement a 3-year programme engaging students and communities in the effective management and conservation of fynbos.”
Louw said this included six workshops, each with a pertinent eco-educational theme, where the sponsors and learners engaged for a day of learning, planting, landscaping and fun.
“At the end of the programme, each participating school will boast about 1 200 plants of about 50 species, all locally indigenous plants that are grown for us by a nursery on the Cape Flats called Fynbos Life. There’s a lot of diversity in each of the gardens,” said Louw.
Louw said the reason they picked fynbos for this project was because it was indigenous to the Cape Flats and well-adapted to the hot, dry and windy summers and wet and cold winters.
Silukhanyo Primary School departmental head Luyanda Colana said their learners benefited from the project as it increased their knowledge around clean environments and equipped them with necessary skills to take care of the environment for a clean and sustainable environmental future.
“It also made them appreciate nature by protecting and preserving what nature offers to humankind. They clearly understood that a clean environment creates a positive attitude to optimum production, economically, socially and psychologically,” said Colana.
With an existing eco club of about 50 learners, co-ordinator of Strandfontein Primary School’s environmental programmes and teacher Ezra Peters said Greenpop’s project strengthened the relationship between their learners and the environment and added to the quality of education being offered at the school.
