The Atamaleng Cooperative

LED BY: Kgoanyape Choane – Chairperson of Management Committee

MAIN CHALLENGES FACED BY THE COMMUNITY: Unemployment, poverty and drought.

MAIN ACTIVITIES: Food security, home-based care.

The Atamelang Co-operative is an emerging local development agency based in Tweefontein. The organisation was started by community members in response to unemployment, food shortages and the spread of HIV/Aids in the village. The cooperative encourages local youth to participate in their food garden project to foster an interest in subsistence farming and agriculture as possible careers.

The project has just recently been nominated for the Best Emerging Agricultural project in the Free State. They were visited by the provincial minister of Agriculture who gave an undertaking that she would get the Premier of the Free State to visit the project with the aim of funding it. The local Health Clinic is supplied with produce such as spinach, onions and cabbage from their garden. Four households with sick elderly members of
the family receive home based care and fresh vegetables from the project. This is in addition to the care and support given to those in the community living with chronic diseases such as HIV/Aids and TB. Between R2 000.00 and R2 500.00 per month is generated from the sale of vegetables from the project.