Greening the Gang-lands

Manenberg is an area of Cape Town that I would not want to live anywhere near. It consists of derelict blocks of flats, wind-scoured bare ground strewn with garbage, and many rival gangs. The news often mentions yet another child caught in gang crossfire, but day-to-day we don't hear the ongoing struggles for survival.

And yet there is always hope.

This weekend's news carried a story of the residents who decided enough is enough. Together with a local organization, they're greening up their area, joining together to turn barren wasteland into community gardens to feed their poor, painting over gang slogans and murals, attempting to create a safe place for their kids to play outdoors.

Hats off to them! It's really good to see this going on, especially in such a "hopeless" area. It's brought neighbours together and kicked a community into action.

We need more like this - and we need to get involved in it, not just leaving it up to the local inhabitants, but making sure we're there to help out in whatever way we can.

There are plenty of areas just down the road from me that could benefit from a little help. My planned clean-up-gang is going into those places. Not only to clean, but to provide hope, contact, help where we can. I have a dream of small community gardens springing up all over the place. I can't work miracles, but making a difference in even one life would be great.

Right here where I live and work on a college campus, there are students who could benefit from a communal bit of land - provided they're willing to work for their share (we keep hearing about starving students, but when work is offered to help them, they don't want it). Many campus residents already have gardens and could share their produce or seeds to get it going.

Little ideas are starting to form a river. Time to unblock the dam and let them flow.