“Food brings peace in the home and peace in the family,” says Lucinda Evans, founder of Philisa Abafazi Bethu, a non-profit organisation (NPO) working with abused women and vulnerable children in Lavender Hill.
On Wednesday 15 March, the NPO launched a healing and sustainable garden at its women’s centre in Retreat.
“Women, children and youth do not have safe spaces to go to,” Evans adds.
The garden was launched in partnership with the Rotary Club of Newlands, Peninsula Beverages and Urban Harvest. It was created specially and uniquely.
“The garden is created in a particular form. The circle in the first flower bed is all the medicinal plants and plants that we grew up with. When we sit there, we plan the revolution of saving lives. We need to have more healing spaces and healing workshops such as poetry, singing and storytelling, so it’s more than just food sustainability.
“It is about the healing of the soul, healing of the mind and healing to our bodies.”
John Winship from the Rotary Club of Newlands elaborates on what makes this garden particularly special.
“We wanted to make an oasis that would be unique and where the community could feel safe. A space where people come to, like any good oasis.
“We were hoping that over a period of time, it would be achieved.”
The idea is for the space to grow and to add trees which would bring serenity and comfort, says Winship.
“There’s a lot more space to, over time, have a lot more greenery, so it becomes more of a park and with that comes shade and comfort and serenity that comes from forests.
“Most importantly, it is a very special garden. It has certain dimensions. It is a square with a circle in the middle.
“My understanding is the Madala is the circle and the concept of the circle is if you go and sit around it you are all equal and you are looking at each other. It is also good for communication.”
With the combination of these various elements, the garden becomes a spiritual space, he continued.
“It becomes a spiritual place and that is good in the context of everything that happens in this sphere and the people, abused women and children.
“This is a further facility to be used to help the improvement and enhancement of those individuals.
“You can provide them with this kind of broad enrichment and belief in themselves in their different capabilities through the garden then that would be amazing.”
According to Winship, the vegetable garden could produce up to 20 kg of vegetables per harvest.
“The marketing material says the garden would produce 20 kg of vegetables per harvest so there should be an opportunity for some selling of those products and it is enormously positive in the context of sustainability.”
Looking back not only on how the garden came to fruition but also on how the women’s centre came into being, Winship recalled how the grounds were previously used as a “cut-through field” for the community.
