INLSA
Jay Naidoo, chairman of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, inspects chillies grown by pupils at Durbans New West Secondary school. PICTURE: S’BONELO NGCOBO
Kyle Venktess
PUPILS at New West Secondary, in Newlands West, Durban, proved yesterday that they are no couch potatoes as the school launched its food security project – vegetable farming.
At the beginning of the year, the school allocated a plot behind the main building to plant vegetables.The initiative allows the pupils to plant seedlings during lunch breaks.
Present at the project’s official launch yesterday was Jay Naidoo, chairman of the Geneva-based Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, a UN-driven project aimed at combating malnutrition around the world.
Naidoo said the New West initiative was a benchmark which would hopefully filter through to other schools.
“One out of three children in South Africa is malnourished, affecting their physical and mental well-being. To combat it requires very little resources, and anything can be achieved with passion and discipline. People all over Africa are at risk of starvation, but with the right skills and resources, it can be combated,” he said.
Creating the vegetable garden was the brainchild of Inba Naidoo, a teacher at the school.
“The pupils plant seeds and weed the garden, and they receive the harvested vegetables as payment,” the teacher said.
New West principal Farouk Bayat said the project was aimed at feeding the school’s hungry pupils.
“We have many pupils who come from impoverished backgrounds; some have lost parents due to HIV and Aids. Often the pupils come to school hungry, because they do not have food at home,” he said.
In addition to being an activity for pupils, the project employs four people from the community who tend to the farm.
Bayat said the school hoped that the pupils would also put their new farming skills to use in their homes.
It was a special day in particular for Jay Naidoo, who said that December 1 not only marked World Aids Day, but also the day Cosatu, of which he was once the leader, was founded in 1985.
