School Gives South African Learners New Life Skills

Like many nations hit by COVID-19, South Africa has seen rising unemployment and hunger since the onset of the pandemic. One school – the Green Business College – is tackling those issues in innovative ways, giving people the skills to not only grow their own produce but make money to help their families and build their careers. At a community center east of Johannesburg, more than two dozen students are learning skills that would have been common among their grandparents’ generation. The Green Business College is teaching them the basics of organic gardening and food preservation by making jams and sauces. For some, it is expanding on hobbies they discovered while in pandemic lockdown. It is also feeding their entrepreneurial aspirations. South Africa suffers from what experts call a “double burden of malnutrition,” experiencing extremes of both hunger and obesity. Small farms like the one set up by the college are viewed as part of the solution to providing healthy food to communities.

SOURCE: VOA