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Community Groups
ARZA has a growing network of Community Groups in churches and community centres in the Western Cape, with new groups forming in Grahamstown and Gauteng. Our Community Groups put A Rocha's Five Commitments into practice by doing small conservation projects within local communities. If you would like to form a community group in your area, please write to Allen Goddard, allen.goddard@arocha.org Christ Church Kennilworth Community GroupVisit them here Rondevlei Community GroupWelcome to the Rondevlei Community Bird Ringing Group link. The group meets on the second Saturday of every month for community bird ringer training with Dalton Gibbs at the Rondevlei Nature Reserve in Cape Town. If you would like further information, please ring Dalton at 021 706 2404.
Vuya Endaweni Community GroupVuya Endaweni Hosts A Rocha AGM A photo Essay by Allen GoddardOn Saturday 20 February 2010 A Rocha's AGM was hosted by the Vuya Endaweni Community Group at the Khayamandi Tourism Corridor in Stellenbosch. Steve Weaver, A Rocha's CEO was the guest speaker. The meeting was followed by a walk led by Vuya Endaweni trainee tour guides to a local creche and onto the surrounding remnant patches of critically endangered Renosterveld on the Papegaaiberg. The day's proceding ended with a fish potjie and braai in Onderpapegaaiberg. The Vuya Endaweni Community Group guides and committee gathered for this photo after the AGM.
The Vuya Endaweni Community Group plan to create employment, generate income and conserve the Papegaaiberg Renosterveld by educating the Khayamandi community about the importance of this veld type for tourism and the economic sustainability of the area. This A Rocha Group has started a creche in partnership with Shofar Church in Stellenbosch, and plan to include A Rocha Creation Alive Clubs in the Primary and High Schools of Khayamandi. Here A Rocha Friends from Cape Town, KZN, North West Province and Stellenbosch are led by Vuya Endaweni guides from the Tourism corridor in the background, through Khayamandi, to the Papegaaiberg wilderness area.
The temperature was 39 degrees Celsius, mitigated gradually by a Southeaster as we climbed higher up the Papegaaiberg.
Leeanne Seeliger, a lecturer in Environmental Ethics, and Vuya Endaweni's project community organiser is working with the A Rocha Community Group to bring about a transformation of attitudes towards the mountain and the people who live near it, by all communities, including residents of Khayamandi, Onderpapegaaiberg and vintage wine farm owner of the Middlevlei Estate Winery. The Vuya Endaweni Community Group has been approached by the Stellenbosch Municipality to co-ordinate the writing of a draft environmental management framework for Khayamandi and the Onderpapegaaiberg area. Here is the mountain Renosterveld with Khayamandi's newest extension in the foreground.
Colourful though these pictures may appear, the experience of no service delivery i.e. no sewage, electricity or running water is one that is felt very painfully by 50% of South Africans who live on the breadline of poverty. This reality of ongoing economic and cultural apartheid in South Africa was aptly experienced as our group summitted Papegaaiberg Mountain to see the view on the other side, Onderpapegaaiberg and Stellenbosch.
The challenge of making our cities and towns sustainable is linked directly to the environmental health of South Africa's rich store of biodiversity. If you would like to support the A Rocha Vuya Endaweni Community Group inititative with their vision for a more sustainable Stellenbosch, please contact Leeanne Seeliger by e-mail: leanne.seeliger@arocha.org Rosebank Methodist Community GroupRosebank Methodist Church, Cape TownThe beautiful city of Cape Town lies in one of the world’s ecological
hotspots, renowned for its spectacular mountain scenery and exceptional floral
diversity. Yet this diversity is under threat from rapid urbanisation and
development, invasive vegetation, fire, pollution, and the drying effects of
climate change.
We have helped to organize and run Environment Sundays and Sunday school programmes, have produced pew leaflets on topics such as energy saving and recycling, and help to maintain the church garden.
James Irlam
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