The Green House Project

In the middle of downtown Johannesburg, the most violent city in the world, resids the most violent district of the city, with a high rate of homelessness, HIV, iliteracy, unemployment, and as a consequence, violence, prostitution and drugs.

This is the district where people who arrive from all over Africa looking for a better life first stop. People come from all over with the ilusion they can have a better life in the city, but when they arrive there, things are not the way they thought it would be. Jobs are not enough and there are not many ways to survive without a job in the city, unless you steal, prostitute, beg or traffic drugs, which many people choose to do when they end up not being able to live a decent life, neither affording to go back home.

Well, in the middle of all that we found an Oasis called the Greenhouse Project, right in the northwest corner of Joubert Park. When you enter the place, it feels like going into a bubble of peace in the middle of the chaos and the violence of the city centre.

The Green House Project started with the dream to create a holistic approach to environmentally friendly city living by empowering the community around to build it together, and since it started it has been chaging and improoving not only the lives of people and the community around, but also have been inspiring many other communities and projects all over Africa.

The project offers a space in the city, where anyone can see and learn that it is possible, even in unfavorable conditions, to create a environmentally friendly city living. It is possible to find the solutions we need for about anything, if we work together and use our potential. It is possible to have a way of life that is more sustainable and connected to nature , even in the city.

Most of the people who came from the rural areas have once grown their food, build their houses, fetched water, delt with waste. They had the resources and the abilities they need to make their living, but when they come to the city, since the land is now a bunch of concrete building with hardly any space to plant nor clean water available to fetch, they need to buy everything from the markets in order to survive. The abilities they had are no longer usefull here, and now they have to find a way to learn new skills to be able to find a job.

But who says so?

Here, there is a space for people to develop and find a dignified and sustainable way of living for themselves, their families, the community, as well as the planet, using their abilities. In order for that to happen the project works empowering people to realize that they always had the knowledge they needed, and creating a space for people to use and develop their own talent. It also makes possible for anyone to develop other abilities working in different projects, and help them to learn how to use the knowlegde to make an income in harmony with nature.

The solutions they are developing goes from planting organic food, recycling and selling the garbage, managing and composting waste, building eco-friendly buildings and working on solar energy.

But most impressive of all, is that the Greenhouse project is just a showcase, a reference center. Their main purpouse is to spread their knowledge to other communities and NGOs. They cultivate a rich network of relationships, and offer opportunities for its members to exchange experiences and learn together.

When we arrived, we were more than welcomed and had a wonderful time listening to the stories, challenges and results of the green house project. We walked around and experienced the smells of the organic gardens, felt the hard work to sell recycable garbage, heard the noises of the ongoing construction of a rammed earth building, which will be enable the expansion of not only this project, but also the many possibilities for the communities' project. 

It was wonderful to feel the power that a commited group of people have to change the world around them when they really believe, have the intension and work hard together. It was so inspiring for our lives as much as it was for our life project when we get back home. Hope it will be for some of you as well.

I made a video of our visit, if you want to know more about the project, they still don't have a website, but we can watch the video at http://youtu.be/nUPifCztwTw

Narjara and Thomas