Micro-farming among the poor Cape Town

Hello once again dear Global Giving Friends,  one and all!

Do you know about the International year of Family Farming 2014 - IYFF ? ** See the link below** . Here in SA we are finally launching a national inititiative to promote Family Farming and Abalimi-Harvest of Hope is of course a shining jewel in the IYFF-South Africa crown.

We are very late to launch the national IYFF initiative since we are - as a national movement - generally underfunded, widely dispersed and terribly busy in our own programmes. But there are many wonderful "jewel projects"  all over SA besides Abalimi-Harvest of Hope, as well!  I will report on these later once we have a platform up and running to promote them.

Back to Abalimi-Harvest of Hope. Its all go go go- you must please understand that real development is intergenerational- we are working with the extremely marginalised majority- the 50% of our population who are under-educated and cannot ever hope to get "jobs"  in the formal market place.   These are people who our government is afraid of. For they are now getting more restive and if in the next five years the government does not fulfill its many promises as laid out in our constitution and on election platforms, we have a100% sure-fire recipe for violent revolution- a kind of South African Spring, like the Arab Spring.

But this wont happen- why? Because the peaceful Family Farming revolution is growing under the noses of the politicians and mega-business, who mostly dont take it seriously at all- except as a small side bet. *** see my article below *** This Family Farming revolution will transform our country into a peaceful, well fed nation with abundant income.  THIS IS CERTAIN.  It cannot be stopped. And it will "save the butts"  of the politicians and mega-business leaders and,of course, protect our wonderful hard working middle classes,  who are the very people who are our infinitely expandable and newly awakening ethical customer base, who are more and more demanding to be fed un-poisoned local produce that protects nature and creates jobs at the same time ! :) .

This peaceful revolution (involving producers and consumers) is actually worldwide and needs VERY LITTLE money- as we have proved and continue to prove - to get started and succeed. 

Viva Family Farming vivaaaa!

Links:

• IYFF link

• Family Farming Revolution (DOC)

Dear Global Giving Friends,

we are having wonderful exposure and your heartfelt and generous support keeps streaming in! Thank you! 

On Tuesdays (tour day) people turn up every week (we dont advertise, its all word of mouth and social networking) from all over Cape Town  and all over the world to see our work - researchers, journalists, academics, our Harvest of Hope Box members, other family farming groups who want inspiration and who may wish to replicate our model, long time and also new Friends of Abalimi and many more.

They all go away inspired - and tired. Its a fact finding tour and there is so much to see and hear that we cant afford to stop and relax and chill until after the job is done.  Its like how Abalimi works. We do indeed celebrate and party, but after we have done what we came to do.

And every moment and every cent counts.

Please do take time to come on the tour (virtually- see attachment & link) and see some of the recent articles and vids that have recently been done by Tuesday tour visitors below ! :) There are more, but I dont want to overload this report.

Of course, when in Cape Town please remember- if its Abalimi you want to see,  it must be Tuesday. This is the day we harvest and pack for market. All other days are focused on farmer support and development.

WARNING: The Prime TV vid link below will be archived in the next months. But its a classic and we will be getting a copy for posterity

All the very best

Rob                   P.S. we are not a begin-end project. We are a family micro-farming movement, among the

                                  unemployed, in the low income suburbs, in genesis

Links:

• Lovely prime tv vid - they came out the blue on a Tueday

• Big Issue Street Mag article (PDF)