From the final grant reporting process.

Tell us a bit about your project and how it went.

Gardening courses:

Gardening courses were held in South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland. The goal was to equip people to grow food gardens in their own backyard. Small business skills were also included and some included other skills such as bee keeping

• 8 courses were held with adults reaching 333 adults
• 2 courses were held in schools reaching 74 learners
• The average number of days of the course was six.

Tree planting

A tree planting campaign was run across ACSA which led to seven bishops including tree planting in their confirmations, many baptisms, funerals, birthday tree planting events. Trees were distributed at Chrism Masses, for Earth Day, and for patronal festivals. We formed a relationship with the Dep of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment and in South Africa were able to now access donations. We donated trees to Mozambique, (Zambezia Diocese and Inhambane) and Milanje in Malawi.

Youth Training

16 events were held reaching a total of 1428 young people These included Diocesan and Archdeaconry youth events, Anglican Students international conference, Servers training, holiday clubs, Climate Justice Bootcamps, a workshop on making videos , and environmental education hikes. We also ran three events at the Anglicans Ablaze conference which had roughly 2000 attendees.

Young people attended COP26 and COP27 as members of the Christian Climate observers programme, they attended the UN Environmental Assembly as part of the Major Stakeholders Forum, they attended the Nairobi Summer School on Climate Justice. They also attended the All Africa Council of Churches Youth Event in Ghana and the youth Forum on Adaptation finance in Africa in Cameroon.

We also supported three hubs for Climate Yes (Youth Ecumenical Summit) in Nairobi, Malawi and Johannesburg – reaching a total of 108 young people. We ran an Eco Camp for 23 young people

Eco- spirituality

We were able to provide writers for the “Preaching for God’s world” website with weekly sermons which also went out by email and social media We provided materials for World Water Day, World Environment Day, Season of Creation, Five Marks of Mission. We also designed Tshirts with

Eco-theology messages.

We helped two eco-theologian students with a module of fees to study at University.

We ran an online eco-theology course for six sessions which had average of 45 participants per week.

A conference was held with clergy – Environmental coordinators – of 21 Dioceses, with Eco-theology and practical action planning.

Tell us what you learned or what advice you would give to others taking on a similar project.

• Always put the young people centre of what you want to do – they are the ones with creativity and energy
• The important role of the Mothers Union in making things happen
• Every event you are sowing seeds, maybe not so many people came but seeds were sown and in time will bear fruit

What was the best thing that happened as a part of your grant year?

Seeing the Mothers Union really take up the challenge – they now passed a resolution to have an Eco-Champ in each Diocese

Seeing tree planting becoming a normal part of our church life and the growth of the Communion Forest idea

Seeing members of the community who aren’t Anglicans join the training

Seeing people not only growing food for their families but being able to sell some veggies and buy other things as well

“The Farming God’s way training provides an excellent platform for dealing with perceptions about soils and plants and how through a better understanding of creation we can work in harmony with God’s way of doing things. Vegetables are all about the soil you grow them in, and understanding that you can improve any soil when you understand it, is revolutionary. We live in a world with a retail mindset- one that harvestsand learning about inputs and nurturing what you do is a paradigm shift for most participants. It’s about more than growing Vegetables- it’s about changing hearts and minds about the way we live in God’s world” Rev Andrew Manning Environmental Coordinator < Diocese of Natal 

“People were fascinated by how the weeds that they normally throw away when cleaning their gardens, is so valuable to keep moisture to the soil as getting water is really a problem. Secondly, they were so excited to make their own compost to have organic veggies/ maize at the end Lastly, awarding them with the certificates has boosted their ego. They said people don’t take them as professional farmers since they don’t have papers. Some of them they sell their produce to big and known supermarkets.” Mme Matito – Provincial Mothers Union

Did this grant make a difference in how you see gratitude?

What we have learned about gratitude is the following

• To be grateful for the energy and passion of young people when they connect their faith with issues of the environment
• To be grateful for the gift of the land – when people learn the skills to grow their food it gives great joy and also helps them with food security and also some income to increase agency
• To be grateful for brothers and sisters in other parts of the world who give so faithfully
• To be grateful for the skills and knowledge facilitators offer