GEORGE NEWS - A few senior citizens who are regular patients at the Thembalethu Clinic are getting a new lease of life by learning to become vegetable gardeners.

The non-profit-making community development organisation, Ithemba Lobomi has started a community gardening project with the aim to enable people to put healthier foods on the table of these patients who were selected as a pilot group. Some are treated for high blood pressure, others for TB or HIV.

"Fresh vegetables are an important part of a healthy diet and will help strengthen these patients' immune systems," says an enthusiastic Xoliswa Toti, who heads the project.

She and her assistants monitor the progress the participants make in their gardens.

The seeds were sponsored by the Department of Agriculture and each gardener also received basic gardening tools. They have planted spinach, cabbage, onions and carrots in neatly organised raised beds. To everyone's delight, the first plants are now starting to push through the soil.

Participants will sell surplus products to neighbours and friends to supplement their pension.
"We are looking forward to expand the project and get more people involved. At the end of the year we also want to hold a competition in which the best garden will be chosen and awarded," says Xoliswa.


Participants of the community gardens project are enthusiastic about having their own vegetable gardens. They gathered for a meeting at Ithemba Lobomi’s offices in Thembalethu last week where they were handed special community gardener t-shirts.

ARTICLE AND PHOTO: ALIDA DE BEER, GEORGE HERALD JOURNALIST