Yiza Ekhaya Soup Kitchen and Sewing Project

Yiza Ekhaya Soup Kitchen and Sewing Project is in Khayelitsha. They run a community garden, grow veggies and feed up to 200 hungry children and elderly people from the community. More about how this wonderful project started and the woman behind it here.

GreenHome has been involved with Yiza Ekhaya for a number of years (more here) and we were due an update on how they were doing, so we visited them on Sunday, armed with gardening tools, seeds and seedlings.

This was Rachmah’s impression when we arrived, “I was so glad that I could help out. To see the state of the garden when we got there was heart breaking. It wasn’t anything that I expected. The garden’s soil was so white (like beach sand), it’s amazing that anything was able to grow in it.  There were a few potato plants, spinach and carrots growing but not much else. There was a lot of unused garden space as Mickey didn’t have any more seeds to grow.”

We managed to fill the garden with the plants and seeds we had brought with us (carrots, pumpkin, tomatoes, cucumber, spring onions, corn cauliflower etc.) and are planning another visit in February 2014 to see how they are growing.

We’ve seen community gardens as a concept spring up around the city. And in a place where so many people go hungry, they are an exciting potential solution. But it is difficult to do much where there is a lack of resources.

“It felt great helping a lady like Mickey. You can see how much she loves helping her community and will give her last to any hungry person.” adds Rachmah.

GreenHome Cape Town has a collection box for toys for the children at the Yiza Ekhaya Community Project and another for financial donations to assist them with buying compost and seeds to keep their garden healthy and happily producing.

Our next visit is on 8 February 2014 to donate toys and see how the garden is growing.  We would love you to join us.  Contact us to find out what time we are going arrange lifts etc.  If you’d like to make a donation towards this community project, you can contact Mikey on 072 010 4337 or if you’d like to do it via GreenHome, contact Rachmah for more information.