De Beers Backs Project to Help Fight Hunger
De Beers has joined forces with one of its major contractors to help combat hunger in one of the host communities near its Venetia mine in South Africa.
People in Blouberg have been trained at a three-day workshop run by the Foundations for Farming organisation as part of the Mayor Pheedi Feeding Project, backed by De Beers and the Basil Read Construction Group.
Maseka Pheedi, Mayor of Blouberg Municipality, after whom the project was named, urged participants to make the best of this opportunity.
The 24 workshop attendees, all local residents who share a passion for growing their own food and thus providing food for their communities, were taught the simplicity of 'using what you've got and making the best use of whatever it is you have available’.
They were shown how to make everything from scratch, instead of unnecessarily spending money on things they could have made themselves.
The Pheedi project is an initiative to help tackle hunger in the Blouberg area. The idea is that these trainees will each train 10 other people in the same principles. They will be monitored and helped during the process until the end of the year.
The workshop was run by Mac and Elsa van den Berg, founders of the Foundations for Farming branch in Polokwane, capital of Limpopo Province. Mac is the principal of Eagle's Nest Christian School, where the couple hold Foundations for Farming workshops.
Foundations for Farming is a Christian initiative, which began in Zimbabwe, aimed at transforming individuals, communities and nations through the productive use of land.
Peet Lindeque from Basil Read said: “Our aim as a contracting partner of De Beers is to ensure that mining leaves a positive and lasting legacy in communities. We hope this farming project will empower communities to overcome issues of poverty and hunger.”
About De Beers
De Beers is a member of the Anglo American plc group. Established in 1888, De Beers is the world’s leading diamond company with expertise in the exploration, mining and marketing of diamonds. Together with its joint venture partners, De Beers employs more than 20,000 people across the diamond pipeline and is the world’s largest diamond producer by value, with mining operations in Botswana, Canada, Namibia and South Africa. As part of the company’s operating philosophy, the people of De Beers are committed to ‘Building Forever’ by making a lasting contribution to the communities in which they live and work, and transforming natural resources into shared national wealth. For further information about De Beers, visit www.debeersgroup.com.
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