Organic Farm

Since 2005 the team at Ikhaya Loxolo trained Hobeni community members in sustainable agriculture (crops and life-stock) and together created a 3ha organic farm, which feeds 50 people on a daily basis with three meals of high nutritional value. Through word of mouth we are now at a point where interest within the indigent community in learning about sustainable agriculture and improvement of nutrition has grown substantially.

Before Ikhaya Loxolo’s Organic Farm started there was no source of vegetable seedlings in the wider community. Since 2008 we sell up to 8000 seedlings per month to interested community members. Ikhaya Loxolo also provides free access to clean water for community members in the vicinity.

However, we are well aware that there is still a long way to go to provide appropriate access to knowledge in order to entrench the importance of food with high nutritional value into everyday life of families in rural indigent communities. We are happy to have the support of a young forward-thinking headman and our team is highly motivated and many of us see their future career within Ikhaya Loxolo’s organic farm.

We provide to the wider community of Hobeni:

• Access to healthier food and cleaner water
• Knowledge and assistance in non-invasive, water efficient, organic farming methods for a wide variety of vegetables
• Knowledge and assistance in life-stock keeping and breeding (chicken, geese, pigs, piglets, goats, cattle)
• Training for our staff and we assist staff in training community members in the importance of high nutritional food in child development, as well as medical basics, cleanliness and cooking methods
• Employment, Ikhaya Loxolo is one of only three employment opportunities in the Hobeni community and the only one which exclusively employs local villagers of this community as requested by the tribal authorities of Hobeni.
• We are the only facility in the Eastern Cape to train mentally impaired youth in sustainable gardening and farming.
• Ongoing information – talking about it is a very important activity!
• Emergency transports to hospital, as we own the only appropriate car for this in the community. There is no such thing as an ambulance in this area.