Every day, almost 20 million people in South Africa go to bed hungry. And every month, 30 million people don’t have enough money, leaving them vulnerable to food insecurity.
In Cape Town, community gardens and nonprofits are fighting this food insecurity by rescuing food waste, encouraging people to grow their own gardens at home, and fostering the next generation of agricultural entrepreneurs.
On this World Food Day, here‘s a closer look at their work.
Bo-Kaap Helpers Garden: Building garden communities during COVID-19
Between...
Arielle Witter
To see a brighter future, young activists know that they can‘t wait until tomorrow to start changing the world. Action has to happen now. In South Africa specifically, seven young girls are doing just that. Through education, climate action, and action against gender-based violence, these girls prove no one is too young to start changing the world.
On this International Day of the Girl, here‘s a closer look at their activism.
On empowering girls through education
The afternoon sun shines brightly on...
We know that coming together as one can affect change. That‘s why in 2015, the UN set forth 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as part of the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Each goal is designed to take the necessary steps to achieve sustainable development for all in areas such as global poverty, global hunger, and more, and to encourage the global community to come together and change the world for the better.
But none of the SDGs can...
Imagine a place where COVID-19 never ends. Where the virus just constantly mutates, crosses borders, and wreaks havoc on our lives and livelihoods. Where life as we know it doesn‘t return for anyone. It sounds horrible right?
We already imagined such a place with our animated series Pandemica which we released six months ago. We made it as a warning.
But millions of people are already living in this grim reality. And it will only get worse if global leaders don‘t...
Sparrow Society‘s warehouse opens onto a street, south of the rush of downtown Cape Town, overlooking Muizenberg Mountain. It‘s just blocks away from the sea.
The chattering of sewing machines accompanies the buzz of women working behind the shop, which sells 100% responsibly made, female-farmed coffee and African-inspired home goods and apparel. The afternoon light shines through the front windows, lighting the hands of women cutting, sewing, stitching, and packing.
“Just like the sparrow bird of our namesake, women are often...
Global health has come a long way in the past 20 years. Since its 2004 peak, AIDS-related deaths have fallen by 68%, since 1990 the under-5 child mortality rate has fallen by more than half, and much more.
Global crises, unfortunately, are threatening to reverse that progress. We need to effectively fight these crises and invest in global health in order to achieve the fourth UN Sustainable Development Goal: good health and well-being.
Here‘s how you can do your part.
Stay informed,...
“Education is the most powerful weapon to change the world,” Nelson Mandela once said. There is power in a quality education, and that is precisely why fair and free access to quality education is among the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Unfortunately, quality education is not a reality for all students. Since 2015, over 500 million children worldwide have not developed the needed skills to read and understand a simple story by the age of 10. They‘re missing a critical literacy milestone...
In 2015, world leaders set 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as part of the UN‘s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to change the world for the better. The very first goal on that list: eradicating extreme poverty by 2030. Together, governments want to ensure that no one, regardless of where they are born, lives on less than $1.90 a day.
The good news is each and every one of us can contribute to making this goal a reality! And you...
COVID-19 cases in Africa hit a record high in July. South Africa had the highest officially recorded COVID-19 infections and deaths, with more than 2.5 million confirmed cases over the course of the pandemic, and over 75,000 deaths. In fact, South Africa accounts for almost 40% of all coronavirus-related deaths on the continent.
The blue line refers to South Africa’s total. Visit our Africa Tracker for more data.
The blue line refers to South Africa’s total.
This latest wave of COVID-19 infections...
Megan Gieske is a storyteller and photographer based in Cape Town, South Africa.
With a country-wide unemployment rate of 32.6% and over 2.4 million confirmed cases as of August 2021, COVID-19 has been wreaking havoc on South Africa. And Johannesburg remains the epicenter of the virus‘ spread.
In western Johannesburg, however, Queen of Hearts Circle, founded by Mariam Behr, has been stepping up to support community needs during the pandemic, raising awareness and educating the community on COVID-19 safety.
How Queen of Hearts...