devnetinternational.org - TIPS

Child feeding program provides food security to thousands of orphans in South Africa

devnet — Tue, 09 Dec 2014 10:49:47 +0000

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South Africa, December 2014 - Civic and business leaders along with civil society groups have joined efforts in starting a child feeding program to reach out to orphaned children in South Africa. The program, which is an offshoot of another project, is gaining momentum and more support from various sectors.

The initiative, spearheaded by TIPS-South Africa under Director Sonja de Wet, is a result of a bakery project which aims to establish small business start-ups across rural areas in South Africa.

The child feeding program is also called Project Hope, meant to call attention to the situation of orphaned children in South Africa who are in need of help, nutrition and health-wise.

According to Director de Wet, “Children are the future of South Africa and they, especially the orphaned children, deserve all the attention and care.”

The child feeding program has already benefited thousands of children. Daily, 1000 children get their meals at designated stations and at the children’s schools. At present, the program is being implemented in the northern rural communities of Pretoria, where the first bakery business-start up was launched early this year. Five more bakeries will be opened next year, each of which will be responsible for having a child feeding program catering to 1,000 children. All in all, the feeding program aims to feed 6,000 children in selected rural communities.

Project Hope gets support from one of South Africa’s leading banks, Nedbank, whose officials take special interest in ensuring the success of the project. In one of their field visits to the child feeding stations, they identified some gaps for which they suggested solutions. The bank’s officials plan to get more support for the children, and expand the coverage of the project to more children in more communities. The succeeding stage of the present child feeding program will include handing out to children some personal items, school bags and other paraphernalia, as well as character development through individual counseling and mentoring.

Meanwhile, flour for the bakery project cum child feeding program is donated by White River Flour Mills. A local dry goods supplier, Ecozymes, has also extended material support to the project. As education is important in the character development of children, Evangelism Explosion, a Church volunteer organization, will provide counseling as well as guidance to the children. Volunteer-mothers also play the role of parents to these children, thereby making them feel not left out but well taken care of, just like having their own family.

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Peruvian enterprises gear up efforts in doing business with China

Lydia — Tue, 08 May 2012 08:30:12 +0000

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Peru, April 2012 - A number of Peruvian companies recently joined a comprehensive and intensive seminar-workshop on doing business with China, with the view to further improving the existing economic and commercial relations between the two countries.

The seminar-workshop provided the participants a perspective and an orientation of the Chinese market as well as necessary information and tools in enlarging trade and sustaining the robust business exchanges between Chinese and Peruvian enterprises.

Encouraged by the successful participation of some Peruvian companies in major trade fairs in China, particularly the recently held Canton Trade Fair, the government of Peru has thrown support to Peruvian companies eyeing the large and growing Chinese market. According to the Peruvian Embassy in China, trade between Peru and China has grown tremendously over the years and such economic thrust needs to be sustained and further strengthened.

The seminar-workshop touched on various aspects of doing business with China, in particular: 1) general aspects of international trade between China and Peru/Latin America; 2) payment modes and schemes for commercial transactions; 3) procedures and various requirements for importing products from China; 4) characteristics and nuances of the Chinese market; 5) establishing contacts with business partners and providers of assistance and services in China; 6) major trade fairs in China and how to join them; 7) logistics and infrastructural support services to international trade.

For further information, please contact:

Ms Gloria Salas – Director

DEVNET-TIPS-WINNER Peru National Bureau

Calle Pacaritambo 176 Dpto 103 San Borja – Lima

Email: tipsnet@speedy.com.pe

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Working for Wetlands

Lydia — Wed, 02 May 2012 11:28:35 +0000

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South Africa, May 2012 - Wetland ecosystems play a vital role in sustaining healthy lives. They purify water and regulate water flow, acting as sponges that store water and release it slowly, filtering pollutants and easing the impact of droughts and floods in the process. Peat-lands, for instance, store about 10% of all the world’s freshwater resources.

Although they make up only a tiny fraction of South Africa (about 10%), wetlands provide an exceptionally high-value ecological infrastructure.

Wetlands also contribute to the mitigation of and/or adaptation of climate change caused by the emission of greenhouse gases due to power generation, deforestation, transport, agriculture and industry, to name just a few factors. Through the years, wetlands have also been used for subsistence and commercial farming, grazing, biomass collection, medicinal uses and water collection.

Despite vital linkages between wetlands and people, wetlands have been severely affected by human activity. Studies in several areas have suggested that between 35% and 60% of South Africa’s wetlands have already been lost or severely degraded. This condition is exacerbated when it is taken into account that by 2025, South Africa will be one of fourteen African countries classified as water scarce (less than 1000 cubic metresper person per year).

Wetlands have been identified as key to the South African landscape and, along with other natural resource protection initiatives, restoration and rehabilitation of wetlands became very significant in the past 10 years.

That is how the Working for Wetlands (WfWet) Programme was born a decade ago to respond to the wetland loss crisis. The Programme champions the rehabilitation, protection and sustainable use of South Africa’s wetlands. Its philosophy is underpinned by interlinked pillars – rehabilitation; communication, education, participation and awareness; applied research and building capacity.

The WfWet Programme is housed within the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) which is a government parastatal and is responsible for developing government environmental policy through research, amongst other functions.

Within SANBI, WfWet is based at its head-office in Pretoria. The Programme has 15 employees, the majority from previously disadvantaged communities.

As government funding is not enough to sustain such a project, additional funding is always required to ensure the success of the project.

One aspect in particular that requires additional funding is the need to train the existing staff. In order to sustain success and due to a need for experience and expertise, it is proposed to implement a structured mentoring programme for the Provincial Co-ordinators of this project. Tips South Africa has been approached to assist in obtaining funding for such a mentorship programme.

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Bread for the Nation

Lydia — Wed, 02 May 2012 11:22:08 +0000

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May 2012 - In South Africa, millions of people live in utmost poverty in informal settlements. Living conditions are adverse and people live mostly in tiny, single room, so-called shanti’s or shacks make of corrugated iron. Many of these people do not have work, resulting in them not being able to eat more than one meager meal a day. Many children rely on their school for their only daily meal. It is not uncommon for children orphaned by the HIV-AIDS pandemic to live alone with their siblings in these conditions.

The overcrowded informal settlements have very few shops, and if they do, the food sold in these shops is very expensive. As the people living here have to walk or pay a taxi to get around, they do not always have a choice but to buy from these shops.

A client of Tips South Africa intends to provide a solution to alleviate this problem. The company has developed a containerized bakery unit and intends to place them in these poor areas. Interested people living in these areas will be invited to apply to become the owner and manager of these units. Each of these units will be able to supply bread, a staple food, to 2500 households per day, at less than half the price of bread sold in the shops. Not only will this project assist in empowering and training more people (especially women) to work and to own their own businesses, it will also assist in feeding the nation; both priorities of the South African government.

Tips South Africa has agreed to assist the client in putting a workable model in place and to obtain funding to pilot this much-needed project.

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