Lehai Siyakhuliswa Pre-School Roots & Shoots group

Location:   Lehae, South of Johannesburg

A converted shipping container is used as a classroom, which is temporarily positioned in the teacher’s home garden until an ideal venue has been found.

Group members:   On average 30 x (3-5year old) children, led by the senior teacher.

Current projects: This group is participating in our R&S ‘Food Garden Project’ with a small vegetable garden to support the daily feeding scheme.

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Ekurhuleni Pre- School Roots & Shoots group

Location:   Ekurhuleni, East of Johannesburg

A converted shipping container is used as a classroom, which is situated in the middle of a housing hostel. Despite the challenging conditions, this pre-school has a happy, bright and well-maintained environment.

Group members:   On average 40 x pre-school children from the ages of 2 years plus, led by the principal.

Current projects:  This group will be participating in our R&S ‘Food Garden Project’, with a small vegetable garden to support the daily feeding scheme.

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Lehae Primary School Roots & Shoots group

Location:   Lehae, South of Johannesburg.

Group members:   9 x previously unemployed school parents, led by the School Principal.

These previously unemployed women maintain a very large vegetable garden (about 600m x 600m) in the school grounds and take a percentage of the vegetables to eat and sell. Some of the money that they earn from selling these vegetables is in turn used to buy resources such as compost and seeds for the garden.

Current Projects:   Lehae Primary School has a feeding scheme whereby school children receive a healthy meal prepared with vegetables from the garden. The Primary School learners also participate in Roots & Shoots sports activities and community workshops.

Nandi Primary School Roots & Shoots group

Location:   Soweto, Johannesburg

Group members:   Nandi Primary school children, led by the school librarian and sports coach.

Current projects:   This school has a library project whereby each grade spends 2 hours a week, reading, writing, engaging in dialogue and doing homework. The school librarian is creating an enthusiasm for reading and writing amongst the youth by making lessons fun through various activities. Nandi Primary also has a vegetable garden, which teachers use as an educational resource.

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Moetapele Primary Roots & Shoots group

Location: Soweto, Johannesburg

Group members: Moetapele Primary school children, led by a senior teacher.

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Wits University Roots & Shoots group

Location:   Witwatersrand, Johannesburg

Group members:   On average about 60 x university students

Current projects:   Wits R&S will be cleaning out cages and helping out at Johannesburg Zoo for a day. Wits R&S are focusing on the local community members whom make a living by collecting recyclable items. Individual community members stack recyclables on the cart, and pull them for long distances on roads to buyback centres, where they earn money per kilogram they collect. The carts used are often put together with items they find, and can be unstable and potentially dangerous on the roads. Wits R&S are designing a more efficient, streamlined recycling cart, they will be easier to use, pull and hopefully safer on the roads when it is piled high with recyclables.

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Eternal Bliss Roots & Shoots Group

Location:   Johannesburg, Gauteng

Group members:   3 x Nature Conservation students

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Kliptown Youth Programme Roots & Shoots group

Location:   Kliptown, Soweto

Group members:   All participants of the programme, led by a committee of young adults.

The Kliptown Youth Programme (KYP) mission is to eradicate poverty of mind, body, and soul and to fight against the disadvantages imposed on the children of Kliptown, by providing educational support and positive activities to engage in after school. It seeks to develop young and dynamic individuals who are willing to contribute effectively for the betterment of their community. KYP has on-going tutoring, athletic, and arts programs for the children and young adults of the Kliptown community.

Current projects:   KYP is participating in our R&S ‘Food Garden Project’ with a vegetable garden that supplements the daily feeding scheme.

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Palaeontology Roots & Shoots group

Location:   Roots & Shoots office, Johannesburg Zoo

Group members:   Founded by Juliet Price, Matthew Berger and Megan Berger

Current projects:  Palaeontology is leaning about living things such as animals and plants that have lived in the past - thousands, millions and billions of years before humans. Palaeontologists use fossils to find out more about these mysteries. These fossils can reveal to us what our planet used to be like, and how animals have evolved over time.

This group will be encouraging the global youth to learn more about palaeontology and participate in our online programme, to be launched early 2012.

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Mount Olive Positive Ray Reef (Khaya Centre) Roots & Shoots group

Location:   Lehae, Johannesburg

Group members:  The staff, along with 400 children

Mount Olive Khaya Centre is a home based care programme that focuses on orphaned and vulnerable children in the Lehae area and surrounding informal settlements. The Centre acts as a day care centre which provides these children with basic needs and psycho-social support. Children are receiving service to meet their physical, emotional and spiritual needs.

Current projects: About 40 x teenage boys are participating in the Roots & Shoots Role Model Programme to become upstanding community members and leaders. These boys will also be involved in the Roots & Shoots Food Garden Project, developing a vegetable garden for the Centre’s feeding scheme.

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Ikageng Itireleng Aids Ministry Roots & Shoots group

Location:  Orlando West - Soweto, Johannesburg

Group members:  The staff, along with 1500 children

This organisation aims to improve the quality of life for orphaned and other vulnerable children affected by HIV/AIDS on a sustainable basis, and to ensure that they achieve and live a fair and quality life as any other child. Ikageng’s aim is to help develop orphans into educated, employable adults who could positively contribute to society.

Current projects:  Roots & Shoots SA is assisting Ikageng by spending time with the children, focusing on greening activities, reading and writing skills, as well as arts & crafts activities.

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Lehae Youth Roots & Shoots group

Location: Lehae, Johannesburg

Group members: 7 x young men

Current projects: These young men from the Lehae community participate in activities and programmes that proactively bring the community youth together.

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Forres Pre-Primary School Roots & Shoots group

Location:   Rondebosch, Cape Town

Group members:   Pre-school children, led by a senior teacher

Current projects:   The teacher has created a combined vegetable, flower and herb garden whereby the children mostly get involved with the digging, growing and planting. The children also assist with making compost using the worm bin, to feed their thriving garden.

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Forres Primary School Roots & Shoots group

Location:   Rondebosch, Cape Town

Group members:   The school ‘eco-club’, led by the Deputy Head

http://forresrootsandshoots.blogspot.com

Current projects:   The eco-club has created a vegetable and flower garden using reusable resources such as tyres, milk containers, seedling trays and even a kitchen sink. The group has come up with a unique idea of creating a ‘pizza garden’ – growing all the plants that are the ingredients for a pizza – yum...Once the group is confident in their plant-growing abilities, they plan to set up more gardens to help the local community, particularly in old-age homes.

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Parow High School Roots & Shoots group

Location:   Parow, Cape Town

Group members:   Parow school learners, led by teachers

Current projects:  Learners are made aware of the importance of going green, that they are the future and what damage done now will have a negative impact on our planet in the long-run.  They will be learning about the fracking issue in the Karoo and participating in a classroom door display competition and environmentally themed talent show to bring awareness amongst learners on these important issues.

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German International School Roots & Shoots group

Location:   Tamboerskloof, Cape Town

Group members:  Teachers and students

Current projects:  Classes are in the process of creating a large tree display along the school corridor walls. Each branch will sprout different environmental messages from the learners for all the school and its visitors to see.