Ningi Gcabashe passed her Code 10 driver’s license at the Verulam testing station on 22 October 2009 after months of preparation and many early morning lessons with Thula’s driving school. What’s different about this story is that Ningi paid for her driving lessons with trees. Ningi is a ‘tree-preneur’ and facilitator for the Buffelsdraai Indigenous Trees for Life Programme.
Indigenous Trees for Life helps poor and vulnerable township and rural communities to grow a future for themselves. Facilitators such as Ningi teach individuals how to grow indigenous trees from seed and care for the plants until they reach a certain height. These individuals are dubbed ‘tree-preneurs’. The trees are then traded for food, clothes, bicycles, agricultural goods and tools, school and university fees, and either planted back into the communities or planted out in forest restoration projects. There are now more than 3000 tree-preneurs around South Africa who grow more than 300 000 trees a year.
At the Buffelsdraai project, funded by DANIDA (Danish International Development Agency) through the eThekwini Municipality, Ningi is both a facilitator and a tree-preneur, and by being the most successful tree-preneur in her community, she has been a wonderful role-model for the other tree-preneurs.
Paul Makhanya, Indigenous Trees for Life Project Manager at Buffelsdraai, explains: “Ningi leads by example and is passionate about growing the trees. She is the best producer by far in the community which means she is teaching from her own experience, and people can see what she has achieved from growing the trees.”
The mother of five children, she has paid their school fees by growing indigenous trees. In March 2009 Ningi approached Susan Viljoen, Indigenous trees for Life Programme Manager for the greater Durban area.
“Ningi asked if she could use her credit notes from her trees to buy driving lessons. We simply did a bank transfer directly to the driving school for the value of her credit notes, and since she began her lessons, she has paid a staggering R 5725 of her tree growing income to gain her driver’s license.”
Says Ningi: “I did not know anything about cars so we had to start with the small cars and then move onto the truck, this is why I needed many lessons. I prayed to God when I had the test, and I passed on the first try.”
Ningi now drives a Wildlands vehicle to collect trees from the homes of the tree-preneurs when they are ready to be traded for goods. “I no longer have to wait for Paul to get the trees. If he is busy and we need to collect the trees, I can go.” she said.
By her example Ningi has inspired others. Thandeka Zincume, facilitator at the neighbouring Ndwedwe project, has recently started driving lessons at the same driving school.
WILDTRUST (registered as the Wildlands Conservation Trust - IT No: 4329/1991/PMB)