Six Luphisi residents attended the Wildlands Conservation Trust Facilitators Indaba held in St Lucia in KwaZulu Natal recently.
The conservation NGO the held a five day conference for the staff of its Indigenous Trees for Life Programme, and Luphisi project facilitators Thulisiwe Mohale, Martha Mhlongo, Hleziphi Nkosi, Mandla Mdluli and Thubelihle Mgwambi travelled to Futululu Park near St Lucia to join their colleagues. Sipho Ngwenya, the project’s nursery caretaker, also attended.
The Indigenous Trees for Life Programme is a livelihoods programme creating opportunities for poor communities to grow trees and exchange them for goods and there are now 23 such projects across KwaZulu Natal, Gauteng , the Western Cape and Mpumalanga.
The Luphisi project started in October 2008, and over 280 “tree-preneurs” now grow indigenous trees here with the help of these five dedicated facilitators. Hlengiwe Mthembu has recently been appointed the new project manager for Luphisi’s Indigenous Trees for Life and said she enjoyed seeing this group build confidence as a team by attending the capacity building event.
“The Luphisi facilitators were able to grow their skills and learn from other more experienced teams, and also spend time as a team developing plans for how to grow the project in their community,” she said.
The ITFL Programme started in KwaZulu Natal and twenty of the projects are based there. After Zulu dancing and a play entitled “Legends of the iMfolozi” was performed, the over eighty staff members erupted in cheering and dancing in reaction to a Swazi dance display by the Luphisi visitors.
Martha Mhlongo, facilitator for Luphisi Indigenous Trees for Life, said: “We are Swazi and we wanted to share some of our culture with our colleagues. It was a surprise, and we were very happy with how we were received. We so enjoyed sharing with our colleagues and learning new ways of how to run the projects to benefit our community,” she said.
Picture: The Luphisi Indigenous Trees for Life Facilitators performed a Swazi dance for the Wildlands Conservation Trust staff at their Facilitators Indaba held at Futululu Park near St Lucia recently.
Picture taken by: Manqoba Sabela/ Wildlands Conservation Trust