The Climate Resilient Communities (CRC) programme expands on legacy support for small scale agriculture and is likely to expand significantly by 2030. The programme recognises that impoverished rural communities live at the “coal face” of climate change, being directly affected by increased variability in temperature and rainfall. We have focused on food and water security by supporting the establishment of food gardens across all the Early Childhood Development, Home Based Care and Disability centers currently being supported. In time this will be extended to the Primary and Secondary Schools supported through the Echo programme.
With increasingly erratic rainfall patterns and rising temperatures the new normal, climate change is a growing reality for the 73 rural communities across Africa that we are working with. “Climate models predict that climate change will lead to warmer temperatures, increasing rainfall variability, and increasing severity and frequency of extreme weather events” (Thorlakson and Neufeldt, 2012). Climate change is clearly a significant challenge for all our community partners and so we are actively pursuing projects that will improve the ability of these communities to respond to the changes that they are being faced with. Interventions like localised climate-wise agriculture and small-scale water harvesting hold the key to climate-resilient communities.
Our programme outcome is that 100% of partner educational facilities have food gardens with 80% of RSA ECD scholars & Southern and East African Gr R scholars receiving a nutritionally certified meal daily.