We’re written about this before, but we continue to be inspired and amazed by the vegetable garden at the Hantam Community Education Trust, east of Colesberg, managed by Charles Gavaza.
To recap, Charles is a teacher at the trust of Zimbabwean origin with a particular gift for growing things, particularly vegetables. His wife, Petronella, teaches in the preschool, and they are their two children – Prince and Tiara — live in a house on the HCET campus.
In a project funded and promoted by the Mamas Alliance,Charles has laid out a big vegetable garden at the Trust, which he maintains with the help of his family, working after hours and over weekends.
He pays the Trust a monthly sum. In return, he sells the vegetables for his own account to the Trust (for school meals), staff members, as well as farmers in the area. Occasionally, surplus vegetables are also sold in Colesberg. The garden is entirely organic – no pesticides or commercial fertilisers are used.
The motivation for the project has been that it would have education value, while providing the school and surrounding community with cheap and nutritious vegetables. To this end, learners from various grades regularly visit the garden, to learn about the various phases of growing and harvesting vegetables, as well as flood security and good nutrition.
These latest photographs, send to us by the Hantam Trust, shows a visit to the garden by Grade Three learners from the Umthombo Wolwazi Intermediate Farm School, the Trust’s school. They are encouraged to plant some seeds, and are given a chance to water seedlings. Way to go …
Below are earlier photographs of the garden in full bloom, with Prince and Tiara Gavaza hard at work among the carrots.
Charles has passion for vegetable growing so is wife Patronela. He has green hands and I love that he’s passing the knowledge down to the learners. He was given seeds by the Department of Agriculture