Our Story
Ikhaya is a Xhosa and Zulu word that means: Home.
The initiative was started in 2013 by a group of young people from Khayelitsha with an idea and concept of making gardening cool. They spotted a piece of land at a school called Isikhokelo Primary School, one of the most developing schools in the area of Site C.
This is one of the 10,000 gardens of Africa for Slow Food and one of the venues that hosts Slow Food Events such as Eat-In, Disco Soup, Funky Food Vegetable Festivals, Seed Saving Workshops and the one and only Khayelitsha`s healthy food market: The Impilo Yabantu Market.
Ikhaya garden is a model of a school gardening hub that connects the community. Our garden is only 700m2 but we planted a large number of plants including fruit trees, vegetables, herbs and wild/indigenous edible plants.
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Education
A wise man once said, "AÂ person without self-knowledge is like a tree without roots".
We have learned about micro-organisms and invited bees, butterflies, bird and created a worm farm, most of these things we grew up seeing on T.V and magazines. For us it’s not about the space, this is urban farming, it’s about sharing knowledge and skills. This is an educational garden also supporting household gardening encourage people to use what they have, old buckets, vertical gardening and rooftop. The idea is to equip the people with knowledge and skills so that by the time they have access to land they know what to do. Our ambition is to reverse the migration, inspire people to go back to villages to use the land and incorporate livestock as well.
Community
One Shovel at a Time.
Khayelitsha is a deprived community, there is a lack of knowledge and access to information about food, healthy living and the environment. The township was born in 1985, and is one of the biggest townships in the world. While there is a high rate of social-ills that most young people get caught up in, there is also an undying passion that continues to exist without being noticed. This is why we believe in connecting people to the earth; to tap into the potential we all have when we work together as a whole for something greater.
Over the past three years we have given young people hope, we have changed the mindset of kids who thought food comes from the shelves, and we have planted together a Food Forest, a Biodiversity garden. We have created a platform for young people to fly overseas and participate at high profile food conferences and events. We are also involved in philanthropic township tourism partnering with Uthando S.A, Livingston Safaries, Jaccada and Mount Nelson Hotel.