When the Covid-19 pandemic hit many communities across Cape Town sprang into action to support neighbours and to build and reinforce networks of solidarity forming Community Action Networks aligned with the Cape Town Together movement. CST researcher Nadia Sitas got involved in her neighbourhood of Muizenberg through the Muizenberg Community Action Network and started working with a local NGO Amava Oluntu and community group SpazaHub who supported community kitchens in the adjacent neighborhoods of Vrygrond and Capricorn. The work within these networks provided amazing insights into how to foster resilience capacities by turning short term crisis relief into longer-term social innovation as highlighted in this article.
In collaboration with Amava Oluntu, Nadia was able to secure a small pot of funding from the GCRF Transforming Education for Sustainable Futures (TESF) project to facilitate reflections among a group of youth activists from SpazaHub who championed much of the food solidarity work and continue to inspire and catalyse change in their neighborhoods. These reflections are captured in this report (attached) and highlight the importance of using creative arts-based practices and immersive experiences in nature to facilitate reflection and learning for transformation and re-imagining radically different futures.
Read more about this work here.
Credit: Nadia Sitas