When record-breaking rains inundated parts of KwaZulu-Natal, leading to unprecedented devastation, the Zero2Five Trust made it their mission to immediately reach out to the affected areas.
Julika Falconer, CEO of Zero2Five Trust, says that vital early learning – which had already suffered during the Covid-19 lockdown – was at risk of being lost again. This, as some preschools initially remained closed and affected children who had lost everything at their homes, were unable to return to school.
“Our initial response was a large scale assessment, clean-up operation and the distribution of food donations and warm blankets in eThekwini, ILembe, uMlalazi and uThukela. Thousands of residents were without safe drinking water due to the floods. Rise Against Hunger KZN assisted with much needed 10l containers of drinking water,” she says.
The second phase of their response throughout May and June, was to ensure that all 350 unfunded Early Childhood Development (ECD) sites on Zero2Five Trust’s nutrition programme were open, and offering a safe and comforting environment for the children enrolled.
This was made all possible by immediate relief grants from the LEGO Foundation, DGMT, Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project, Standard Bank’s Tutuwa Foundation, JT Ross Charitable Trust, Illovo Sugar SA and the Grindrod Family Centenary Trust.
According to Falconer, by the end of July, over 2 000 families left destitute after the floods, will have received a food parcel to help through the tough winter months.
Address poverty and hunger from inside
Throughout May and June, the trust ensured that a warm breakfast and lunch was served to over 10 000 children at various centres. In addition, Zero2Five’s contractor for all playgrounds since 2008, Jungle Gems Hillcrest, repaired 22 playgrounds in eThekwini and replaced two broken ones.
Smashed plastic furniture was also replaced and PVC covered mattresses supplied in two districts.
“20 000 books for ECD centres were sourced, all full of inspiring stories of hope and upliftment. Story time at school will be the only trauma counselling that most children in KZN have access to,” Falconer explains.
She adds that the recent floods were a stark reminder that climate change was a reality, leading to disasters such as torrential rains and floods. This, together with the rising cost of living in the wake of soaring fuel and food prices, made a longer term solution all the more important.
“Poverty, hunger and malnutrition must be addressed from the inside.”
Julika Falconer, CEO of Zero2Five Trust
Pointing to the Household Affordability Index by the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity group (PMBEJD), Falconer explains that food prices continued to soar at the mid-year point in South Africa.
Trying to keeps heads above water
In June 2022, household food basket was recorded at R4 688,81. Month-on-month, the average cost of the basket increased by R78.92 (+1.7%), from R4 609,89 in May 2022.
She said that, after 15 years of feeding programmes throughout KZN and the Eastern Cape, one of Zero2Five Trust’s key learnings was that poverty, hunger and malnutrition could never be addressed from the outside.
“It will succeed only if impoverished people have the agency to grow nutritious food, feed regular meals and improve health not only for themselves, but for the people in their communities.
“Women in the ECD sector are great candidates and willing to work to grow food and to change eating strategies from nuclear households to community kitchens, so there is communal production and care of health and nutrition needs, in particular for the young children in their care,” Falconer says.
Establishing food gardens
As a result, the final phase of Zero2Five’s flood disaster relief will focus on the creation or re-establishment of sustainable food gardens at ECD centres.
“Project Grow” saw Zero2Five install 67 ECD based food gardens in partnership with many funders over the past two years. However, severe damage that included the destruction of vital fencing that keeps livestock out of these food gardens, led to “heart breaking” loss of crops throughout April and May.
Of the 23 ECD centre-based food gardens installed during 2021, only three were spared by the heavy rains and much work is needed to repair and replace fencing, prepare beds and plant new seedlings.
Falconer adds, “With the prompt and very generous support received, we are so grateful to be able to go beyond providing food parcels and vastly improve food security at these ECD centres for generations to come.”
Food garden project expansion
“With our recent opening of satellite offices in Estcourt and Eshowe, we are now able to implement a large scale ECD food garden project to better safeguard communities against the effects of climate change with the goal of securing a brighter future for every child.”
She says agricultural experts, The Siyazisiza Trust from Mtunzini, would facilitate all training as well as follow up mentoring.
In the uMlalazi Local Municipality, over 50 keen ECD practitioners will enjoy a three day hands-on, practical workshops in ECD centre-based sustainable food gardens. These workshops include climate adaption measures, ECD site assessments, training, food garden design, water-wise planting, composting and more.
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