Nombuso Sibiya grins at her pile of groceries, purchased at the recent “tree store” held in her community. Rice, maize meal, cooking oil, tins of beans and fish, soap, matches and sugar. Nombuso is sixteen years old and is in grade ten at Ilinge High School in Vosloorus. She is one of four siblings and her single mother is not working. “Growing the trees helps families to get food.” she says.
Nombuso is a “tree-preneur” in the Indigenous Trees for Life Programme where children and adults in Vosloorus are growing indigenous trees from seed until they reach a certain height in order to trade them for goods such as food, clothing, school uniforms and stationery, as well as wheelbarrows and hippo-rollers for collecting water. The conservation NGO the Wildlands Conservation Trust has been running this programme in KwaZulu Natal since 2004, where it has over 20 communities growing around 300 000 trees each year. The tree stores are markets set up for the tree-preneurs to spend the credit notes they receive when Wildlands collects the trees they have grown. Wildlands then plants the trees back into the community or into forest restoration programmes.
The Vosloorus project is the first Indigenous Trees for Life project located in Gauteng. Unilever South Africa has partnered with the Wildlands Conservation Trust on projects for many years, and so when they requested that the Vosloorus Thokomala home be used as the starting point to establish a tree growing project near their Boksburg factory, Wildlands got to work in September 2008, and subsequently rolled out the project in the community. In 2004 Unilever had established a Thokomala Home in the Vosloorus Community; Thokomala homes are community family homes for children orphaned by HIV and Aids, a project originally founded by Unilever and since 2005 operating as an independent section 21 company.
The first tree store in Vosloorus was held in August 2009, with 29 tree-preneurs trading with 831 trees. The amount spent was R 2077.50.The latest tree store where Nombuso purchased her groceries, had a value of R 26 330, with 8068 trees being traded by the now 291 tree-preneurs. The phenomenal growth of the project in this ten month period reflects the need in this community for opportunities for employment and development.
Wiseman Tshabalala is a facilitator with the Vosloorus project and his role is to identify those in his community most in need of this opportunity. He then teaches the individuals how to grow the indigenous trees, and mentors them in the process. “The latest tree store has raised the interest in the project even further. There are many unemployed people in our community and when people saw tree-preneurs buying wheelbarrows full of groceries with their credit notes, they wanted to know how to become tree-preneurs”, said Tshabalala. “Being a facilitator has expanded my knowledge in community work. Working with young people I am learning how to help them not only with the tree growing but with skills for life, which is very rewarding.”
Picture: Nombuso Sibiya, a “tree-preneur” with the Vosloorus Indigenous Trees for Life Programme, shows off her goods purchased at the tree store held in her community recently.