Innovations

Msinga - Mkhphula

1. Sorghum – bird protection

• Burn mixture of trees [Msuzwane, Tyre, Melethned] every three days; smoke goes in sorghum and sticks to grain, so birds won’t eat them

• New? Did not hear it before

• Remark: environmental risk?

• Mr. Dlame

2. Home garden – HIV-infection

• Woman build a small home garden in a river bed, protected by thorn trees against goats/cows. Her 11-year old boy helps her in the garden.

• New? Community garden too far; so she took initiative herself (only example I saw)

• 26 year old woman

3. Funeral donation

• In one area, collect 5 R and bread per household to give to affected household (up to 600 R)

• New? Before saving scheme (10 R per hh to bank account for hh and two relatives – up to 1000 R for hh, 600 for relatives). But not possible to maintain (why?).

• Interesting: various donation/saving schemes

• Mkhuphula – Nhlungwane

4.Stock-theft protection

• People buy/sell a goat/cow with ID in presence of witness (neighbours); anyone walking around with goat/cow can be asked where they bought it.

• New? Did not exist in area or neighbouring areas before; Induna had to ask Inkosi for permission to introduce system.

• Msinga – Mkhuphula

5. Farmer Life School

• Stakeholders in health and agriculture get together to improve food security and well-being among HIV/AIDS affected households via farmer learning groups (incl. focus on innovation)

• New? Builds on experiences with FFS in Africa; and experience with FLS in Asia (focus on innovation in combination with HIV/AIDS seems new.

• Msinga – partnership between FSG, Sinozwelo d.i.c., Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and three support groups