An international student reflects on her experience after having the opportunity to visit one of the Young Mother Support initiatives in Villiersdorp, the Blossom Café. Co-created and supported by Cape Winelands Biosphere Reserve.

This afternoon, we met a larger group of young girls at the “Blossom Café.” The girls meet every two weeks. The local Flourish host is one of the people responsible for organizing it.

We all sat in a circle, and we started right away with a dance, which helped lighten the mood, especially because some of the girls were shy. After that, we prayed and introduced ourselves. Even if you don’t believe in God, it was a few moments of reflection where you could look within yourself.

I personally felt like part of the group because it was also new for the girls (it had only recently started), and we were given the same task to complete together. We had to write down on a piece of paper what makes us sad or afraid. Even though it was anonymous, I found it hard to write something down. I wasn’t sure if I should open up that much.

I wrote: losing someone I love, Violence, Not being honest, Unfairness.

Looking back, I think I should have written more and allowed myself to be more open. The girls around me didn’t hesitate and wrote a lot. That surprised me because, as a young child, you usually have fewer fears, don’t you? But, of course, this is extremely personal and individual.

Once we were done, we all put our papers in a box, and each person had to take a random one and read it loud anonymously. Almost every girl had written about bullying at school. That made me really sad because it reminded me that I was also excluded at times in elementary school. I’m so grateful that this is no longer the case for me in high school, and I hope the girls will be able to rise above it and build real friendships. It’s heartbreaking how mean children can be and how much they can hurt others…

Some girls wrote that they were afraid of getting pregnant. As an 11-year-old, I never had the fear of getting pregnant or being raped, and that makes me so sad. But the facilitator said she would be there for the girls and support them, which made me really happy.

Two girls have also lost their parents, which reminded me of a question a girl from the Earthlings (Eco-Educational club, Stormsriver, Tsitsikamma) asked me: Do you have a mom and dad? At that moment, I just wanted to hug my parents.

At the end, we had a discussion where we talked about the importance of supporting one another. My classmate summed it up perfectly by saying how important it is for women to use their voices. It felt so good to talk about female empowerment together. I felt personnaly really empowered. The feeling was incredible, I had goosebumps.

(Now that I’m going over this again, International Women’s Day was on March 8th, and this day is just so important! Women can achieve anything they want, and it’s about supporting young women and encouraging them, including myself, because I sometimes have doubts too.)

Further reading and background of the reflection…

In February, the Cape Winelands Biosphere Reserve team had the pleasure of hosting the yearly cross-cultural trip with the Athénée school Edulink class from Luxembourg. The students and teachers’ part-took in various projects and educational activities, learning alongside local youth, having cross-cultural engagements over the course of two weeks.

Athénée Action Humanitaire, the school NGO, have supported Cape Winelands Biosphere Reserve eco-educational and socio-economic projects since 2016, reaching over 26 000 people.

Photo features the first Blossom Cafe outing that took place last year. The girls, accompanied by facilitators, visited Two Oceans Aquarium.

The Blossom café workshops, for girls aged 12 – 16, are co-facilitated bi-weekly with the Flourish host, alongside two additional facilitators. The aim is for the vulneable girls in the community to gain access to available resources, build a strong support system in the community, foster healthy friendships, and recieve nutrition education.

Cape Winelands Biosphere Reserve also supports the Flourish host in her mission to reach and educate at-risk young pregnant mothers, unemployed, or suffering from substance abuse. Flourish is a national Grow Great initiative offering 10-week classes in post and antenatal classes, focusing on the first 1000 days of a baby’s life. They baby and the mother’s health and wellbeing.

The core of Cape Winelands Biosphere Reserve (CWBR), the Boland Mountain range, hosts the most incredible biodiversity in the world. The Fynbos biome, forming part of the Cape Floristic Region. In addition, the Berg Catchment is the source of fundamental rivers, that course through towns, cities, and three other Western Cape biosphere reserves, eventually flowing out into the Indian and Atlantic Ocean.

As part of facilitated eco-educational outings in the region, the CWBR incorporates source to sea education. The CWBR team, in collaboration with partners, regularly facilitate excursions for youth from underrepresented vulnerable inland communities, bringing them to the sea. Exposing them to the immense biodiversity along the shore, fostering the link between inland rivers and ocean health.

This includes a yearly camp in partnership with a marine nature reserve, a lowland fynbos area that hosts a marine protected area. The field guides, some initially trained through the field guide training offered through the CWBR, give back during the eco-educational outings through sharing marine, flora, and fauna education of the area. Some of the field guides, having grown up in inland communities, become role models for the youth in fostering curiosity for conservation and education careers.

Extract from a Noember 2024 camp

Travelling from the inland mountain community they call home, at the base of Jonkershoek along the Eerste river, 15 after-school group youth, and their teacher, were brought by the CWBR team to De Hoop Nature Reserve for a weekend camp at De Hoop Collection. A first-time experience for them all.

Arriving on a late Friday afternoon, the group set up camp for three days, tenting amongst the ancient milkwood trees under a vast stary sky. The weekend’s activities were co-facilitated by the De Hoop Collection guides and CapeNature facilitators. Activities included a guided nature drive, a marine walk along the rocky shores discovering the abundant life that lives there, and experiencing first-hand all the biodiversity the area has to offer.

Eco-educational outings are an important catalyst in fostering curiosity and learning about the interconnectedness between humans and nature, their role in preserving the natural environment.

Exploring

Marine Education

Marine Education

Safari Drive

Today marks the international day for Climate Action. A reminder of the importance of preserving biodiversity, reducing carbon emissions, and working towards a greener and more sustainable future for all. This years theme: Empowering Action, Securing the Future.

As part of Cape Winelands Biosphere Reserves (CWBR) educational outreach in communities, exposure to citizen science has become a regular component to the hands-on activities offered. A bottom-up approach contributing to building resilient communities, understanding climate change also means understanding weather, one’s environment, and eco-systems. This is where citizen science can play a role.

Particularly for the vulnerable poorer communities who continue to be heavily impacted by the drastic weather changes. Entire families losing their homes and being displaced by floods or fires. 

Prof Jennifer Fitchett, winner of the 2024 Communication Award under the prestigious NSTF-South32 Awards, states: “Climate change is not just an environmental issue, it’s a human rights issue,” she states. “It is the poorest communities that suffer the most, despite contributing the least to global emissions.”

Recent CWBR activities

Last week, the CWBR team co-facilitated a bioblitz with a CREW facilitator from SANBI for the Bridge House Eco-Club and Groendal Secondary School Science Club youth. It was the first documentation of the biodiversity, on iNaturalist, present in that particular spot. The students learned how to use the iNaturalist app and the value of citizen science as well as becoming citizen scientists.

Using iNaturalist app

The BioBlitz Team

Exploring the area

In September, for World Clean-up Day, the CWBR team joined the Strand Looper team, a local community-led NPO, who arranged a river clean up along the Berg River. The 30 participants not only helped clean up but also learned about the interconnectedness of water systems and human impact. Hands-on activities were facilitated at the CWBR mobile educational classroom, including a MiniSASS (Stream Assessment Scoring System) and water-chemical analysis, deepening their understanding of precious water resources. Various partners contributed to the day, and responsible collection of the waste gathered.

Using binoculars

The river clean-up team

Collecting litter

Empowering individuals to give back through learned skills and knowledge

Several of the community Citizen Scientists, trained as part of the UNESCO Be Resilient project, regularly co-facilitate alongside the CWBR team at community engagements. They share how to conduct the various river monitoring methods and what they learned in becoming Citizen Scientists.

To learn more about the project and other mitigation adaptions toward tackling climate change, check out the Cape Winelands Biosphere Reserve activities as part of UNESCO Be Resilient  

Sharing knowledge learned

Explaining SASS5

Water Chemical Analysis

A recent outing in collaboration with a CapeNature Engagement Officer at Assegaaibosch Conservation area, Jonkershoek. Co-facilitated, sharing citizen science with Care Career Connection, an organization who offer skills development to the mentally and physically impaired.

The Cape Winelands Biosphere Reserve (CWBR) team has partnered with Action Volunteers Africa (AVA) to collaboratively create and implement monthly Mobile Career Cafés (MCC’s). The initiative is an opportunity for unemployed and non-studying youth (in particularly rural areas) to learn job-readiness skills and explore careers through hands-on activities and fun interactive engaging games.

“Bone-chilling statistics reveal that 65.50% of youth in South Africa are currently unemployed - and only 65% of our students are completing high school. In rural South Africa, young people are not able to access as many services as those in the cities. These young, unemployed rural youth are especially vulnerable to socio-economic exclusion - and the wider, long-term impacts to South Africa's economic and social future is deeply concerning.” Action Volunteers Africa

The CWBR mobile educational trailer STEAM-Y (Science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics - for youth) is transformed into a one-stop-career-shop, with pop up gazebos creating multiple shaded spaces for three different sessions that the youth rotate between during a four-hour workshop. This includes two sessions by AVA: Identifying possible immediate resources to generate income, and employability skills including CV building, interview skills and preparing for the job interview. Complimentary to AVA’s sessions, are hands-on activities at STEAM-Y where CWBR facilitators and volunteers share environmental awareness through hands-on activities and a careers discovery session. Introducing youth to possible careers relevant to their area and employment opportunities in conservation.

To prepare for the MCC visit, partner NGOs are identified in the area to reach the most marginalized youth and strengthen impact and sustainability of ongoing support after the MCC has taken place.

Since June last year, nine MCC’s have reached two-hundred-and-fifty-four youth in Wolwekloof (Wolseley), Caledon, Swellendam, Darling, Khayelitsha, Atlantis, and Haut Bay. Two awareness workshops, in partnership with CapeNature, have been held for thirty Community Development Workers at Wolwekloof Day Camp (Wolseley) and Assegaaibosch Nature Reserve (Stellenbosch), sharing the educational resources that AVA and the CWBR have available.

Youth learn while having fun and all have stayed until the end of the Workshops, rain or shine!

AVA Introductions

Igniting Curiosity

Learn through play

Binoculars

• 97% of youth felt confident that they now know how to prepare for a job interview; compared to 46% who knew what to say and do in a job interview at the start of the workshops.

• 86% could identify potential employers and learning opportunities in their communities; compared only 15% prior to attending the mobile career café.

• 64% was very confident that they could identify and list their skills and experience on their CV at the end of the workshops, compared to 30% at the start.

In response to the question, “I am interested in learning about the environment and nature”, 35% of the participants who attended the MCC in Atlantis (June 2022) strongly agreed at the start of the event and 12% were not interested in nature at all.  At the end of the workshops that day, 82% strongly agreed that they were interested in the environment and nature.  There was not one not interested in learning more about the environment at the end of the MCC.

Intro to Science

Whose career?

MiniSASS

Resourcefulness Session

Check out the below videos to see the first Mobile Career Café Workshop which took place in Worcester, for Youth Day, June 16th, 2021. This year, the CWBR team and AVA got together on the 16th and 17th of June, to celebrate the Mobile Career Café’s first birthday, and facilitated Workshops in Darling and Atlantis, reaching seventy-two youth.

Mobile Career Café Darling 2022. Action Volunteers Africa is a non-profit organisation that empowers youth to be ready for the world of work.

Marking the end of 2021, it was highlighted that partnerships, collaboration, and passionate mentors invested in their communities are the cornerstone for long-term solutions in outreach and relevant meaningful impact. This holds true to Cape Winelands Biosphere Reserve team’s involvement in Villiersdorp, where we met a woman passionate about bettering the lives of children, young mothers, and pregnant girls in the community.  

Villiersdorp, an agricultural town in the fruit-packing industry of the Western was severely affected by the Covid pandemic adding to the already existing poverty problem. Through a local farmer who works closely with the community, the CWBR team distributed 100 food parcels on a bi-weekly basis and were invited to meet the key role players of the community-driven initiative, one of them being Sophy, who we later discovered was also a Flourish* Host working with young mothers.

The CWBR team visited the community-run soup kitchens, who with Sophy and a group of ladies, had grown from 3 to 10 locations to meet the rapid increase in hunger due to loss of jobs. Over 3000 individuals were fed three times a week and family members also supported the project by assisting with sanitizing, serving food, or delivering food to those who were unable to walk to the distribution points.

Increasing need

Homecooked meals

Sponsored equipment

Meals on wheels

Recognizing that food parcels were not a long-term solution, the CWBR team was asked for assistance by Sophy to start up community gardens to promote dignity, health, nutrition, and food security within the community. Ongoing Food Security Workshops were facilitated firstly on a weekly, then monthly basis. The CWBR team helped implement two community food gardens and several private home gardens.

Learning practices

Being an example

Sharing with youth

Flourish Garden

An additional community food garden was established last year together with the mothers participating in Flourish classes and overseen by Sophy. The harvest will contribute to a local soup kitchen and mothers with young children and babies, encouraging health and nutrition.

As the relationship has grown, so has the CWBR’s volunteer involvement in the Flourish Workshops facilitated by Sophy.

In October 2021, a mental health workshop was facilitated with the participants of the current Flourish class in honour of Mental Health Month. The workshop took place during a weekend retreat for fifteen mothers, some expecting and with young children. The Workshop was facilitated by a local psychology student and unpacked what mental health is, ways of looking after oneself and nurturing one's mental health. The mothers asked for more similar initiatives where they could share their experiences, learn more about themselves and bond.

Since then, an Athénée Action Humanitaire volunteer and a local retired teacher have become more involved in the Flourish Workshops on a bi-weekly basis. Contributing through breath-work, pre and postnatal yoga classes, presentations on health and nutrition, and teaching jewellery making as an alternative form of income. The programme culminates in graduation ceremonies for the mum and baby, as well as a much-needed baby shower. 

Bonding

Postnatal Yoga

Mental Health

Workshop

An outing for the most recent Flourish mums was arranged in April at the farm in Franschhoek. The mothers were inspired to grow their own veggies, made a toy mobile for their babies, and had time to enjoy the beautiful environment at the farm and the sound of the birds. Each mother received a gift pack with seedlings and a pregnancy journal.   

Celebratory lunch

Exploring

Digital microscope

Flourish Mothers

Not forgetting the men in the families, a workshop was also hosted for the fathers of the children earlier in the year by Sophy, fostering the importance of their presence and bond with their child.

Through this collaboration, and what the CWBR team has learned from the community, additional funds have been raised to implement a project addressing the rise in young pregnant girls since the start of the pandemic; the Yvonne Zeimen Young Mothers Support Programme. Via the Blossom Café, the CWBR will organize a mobile support system to reach out to these pregnant girls and young mothers in the different communities. It will be a space to bond, learn new skills, and offer time with a psychologist who is not from the community. This project will build onto an existing service of Flourish hosts, who are a partner of the team. Partnerships also include school educators, social workers and local NPO.

The project was introduced at a local primary school to girls from grade four to seven and the first visit with the Blossom Café is due to take place later this month.

It is a privilege to know and work together with such dedicated women who are involved in their own community’s health, dignity, and future.

* Flourish is an NPO who, through trained hosts, facilitate post and prenatal classes for young pregnant mothers and mothers with young children. Focusing on the first 1 000 days of a child's life. They support and empower mothers to establish a solid foundation for their baby’s success, health, and wellbeing.

A peek at Sophy’s garden at home and the Flourish Community Garden which have a variety of vegetables growing. The CWBR team assists with Food Garden Workshops regularly and provide seedlings on a needs basis.

We would like to share some exciting news from our biosphere reserve! In 2021, the Cape Winelands Biosphere Reserve (CWBR) team joined the iNaturalist community. A project page of our biosphere reserve was created, promoting Citizen Science. This year we entered the worldwide City Nature Challenge and alongside other members of the Stellenbosch community in different areas of Stellenbosch, we competed together for the title of most biodiverse city in the world.

Each year, the competition takes place over four days, from the end of April until the beginning of May. The goal is to have the most participants in the competition, and photograph as well as identify as many species of fauna and flora as possible. The rich beautiful biodiversity we are surrounded by is shared globally, while also having the opportunity to contribute to important research through the iNaturalist app. 

On Saturday, with the educational STEAM-Y* unit, set up outside of the Jonkershoek Nature Reserve entrance, the CWBR team spread awareness of the City Nature Challenge and engaged with the public to part-take in the competition. Before entering the reserve, people passing by could see the live statistics on the TV screen by STEAM-Y, as the competitors photographed and uploaded different species of plants, reptiles, insects, and birds. The CWBR team photographed the biodiversity in the area to contribute to the competition. 

On Sunday, together with the CWBR facilitators, eighteen participants from the Mbeko Eco-Club, based in Mbekweni Paarl, part-took in Franschhoek at Mont Rochelle Nature Reserve. Hiking up the mountain, the group contributed to the City Nature Challenge by photographing the biodiversity which sparked curiosity in them. They also did a miniSASS exercise in the river to explore the biodiversity present there.

*Science, technology, engineering, art, mathematics – for youth

Mont Rochelle Nature Reserve

MiniSASS

MiniSASS

Citizen Science

The Cape Winelands Biosphere Reserve team, invited to speak about the City Nature Challenge event on RSG Sondergrense Radio on Friday morning, spread more awareness of the event and Citizen Science.

Check out how we did in the competition!

Links

City Nature Challenge Stellenbosch Project page, Cape Winelands Biosphere Reserve Project page

Biodiversity gathered by Citizen Scientists within Cape Winelands Biosphere Reserve

Highlights