Star or the week are the community members of Xurube and Perspeka villages in N≠a Jaqna Conservancy who have managed during difficult conditions to reap a good harvest from their EU-funded gardens.
The Nyae Nyae and N≠a Jaqna conservancies had a successful season in their EU-funded gardens, where crops have flourished. The Xurube villagers have managed to produce sufficient food for their villages and some excess to sell to other villages.
Following the recent dry seasons, this is no mean feat and shows that projects can and do work if managed well and if they have sufficient community involvement and support.
The hand-watered gardens have blossomed, with pumpkins, melons and sweet potatoes doing particularly well. The project villages are currently planting winter seeds to provide food during the difficult winter months.
The villagers have always lived off the land, but rely on veld food collection. Drought relief assistance is no longer enough.
The project supports the San communities in these conservancies to diversify their livelihoods and improve food security through gardens, fields and livestock management to complement their traditional lifestyles