Mautse is plagued by poverty and the resultant social ills (teenage pregnancies, substance abuse and petty crime) that come with it. Our contribution to assist in curbing poor self esteem issues is to screen good black consciousness movies to the secondary school youths from time to time.
SCD has a school fundraising programme in progress to implement food gardens at the local primary and secondary schools. The abnormally high occurrence of learners being unable to successfully get through their school work has been linked to poor nutrition. Both schools currently have daily feeding programmes, but unfortunately they serve high carbohydrate meals, which are not an appropriate solution. Rosendal Permaculture Centre and the schools are raising funds, seeking support in kind and looking for volunteers in order to design and implement a permaculture design, which includes rain water harvesting, food forests and vegetable gardens. This will supplement the schools feeding schemes and in time surplus may be sold to improve school facilities.
TREE PLANTING IN MAUTSE AND ROSENDAL WITH GREEN ROSENDAL
The Green Rosendal Initiative is a formal group of town residents committed to planting trees, forming woodlots, management of the urban environment and recycling. SCD supports this initiative with expertise, donating paid farm tours, sourcing and planting of trees. Over the past year we have planted over 100 trees in the area.
At the local economic development initiative Rosendal Village Market we sell organic at origin Ugandan coffee beans which we import, seasonal vegetables and eggs, health drinks and soil and plant support organisms. The market takes place every last Saturday of the month and on other special weekends. Beautiful quality crafts are available, locally made cheeses, jams, soaps.
