THE MIDLANDS MEANDER ASSOCIATION EDUCATION PROJECT

MMAEP introduction

The Midlands Meander Association is a highly successful co-operative which began in 1983 with the intention of marketing the work of a small group of artists and crafts people in the Kwa-Zulu/Natal area. While the Midlands Meander has become South Africa’s largest and most popular arts and crafts route, it passes through significant pockets of poverty and suffering.

In 2003 a collective of environmental activists [the Midlands Meander Association Education Project] started working in rural and peri-urban schools in this popular tourist area, with the aim of ‘increasing awareness of the importance of caring for the natural environment among all sectors of the community in the Midlands Meander area…’Their aim is to assist teachers in under-resourced areas to achieve ‘whole school development’. 

Their broad range of activities with the children includes Life Skills because ”it is difficult to care about the fate of the frog when you have been recently abused and feel that no one cares about your predicament.“

They make extensive use of play, music, art and gardening, and now also employ a counsellor to help the more disturbed children.

Among their objectives is ‘To improve the food gardens component with an emphasis on sustainability, feeding pupils, incorporating the surrounding community and assisting needy families’. To help the schools to achieve Eco-school status the pupils are taught gardening using permaculture methods. They have achieved considerable success in this.

Their thorough, detailed monthly reports are sometimes more than 20 pages long! They give a vivid picture of life in these under-resourced rural areas where many children are traumatised and have minimal self-esteem.

”You have done wonders for our kids. They are no longer just farm kids but believe they are like any other kids.”

”Before, I just thought to plant rows of cabbages. Now I want to start slowly and build a proper food garden.’ ‘I am a born-again gardener, on my route to saving money and to a healthy life.”

The above are the reactions of two school principals after 18 teachers attended a 5-day SEED-funded permaculture workshop in their school holidays. 

MMAEP’s reports highlight only too clearly the problems of working in South African schools, particularly rural ones. In September 2008 their report included the following:

“‘Our best efforts to improve education in the Midlands are thwarted by things entirely beyond our control – transport, food and toilets. Recently, a school cancelled our visit because all their toilets had been stolen – the porcelain chipped out of the concrete! At a school  the cook had resigned, so the feeding scheme just collapsed – hungry children cannot concentrate well, no matter how interesting the lesson. At another school many children were not at school because the taxi driver was arguing with their parents and refused to transport them.”

Thatu and MMAEP