African women have always played an integral role in sustaining the planet’s biodiversity, conserving the environment around them, and EarthLore fits right into this mould. This is one of the women-led organisations that is rural-based, and that often forms the backbone of the community and the starting point of the agri-food value chain.
Earthlore’s work ensures that these women continue to play a central role in the continued life cycle of our planet.
Earthlore was provided a grant to improve the economic security of rural women in Mpumalanga, South Africa, and to promote conservation of the environment and biodiversity. The project included community dialogues, exchange meetings and workshops for rural women to revive and strengthen women’s leadership, traditional knowledge and governance systems. Earthlore also organized agro-ecology trainings and support visits to small-scale women farmers to revive traditional knowledge and indigenous seed and food systems. They undertook advocacy activities to protect community lands and sacred natural sites– as a way of continuing their legacy of honouring the land they live on. Earthlore’s unique respect of traditional methods provides them a unique advantage when it comes to conservation methodology and allows them to centre women and the earth in their work in spiritual and revolutionary ways.
Earthlore’s understanding of the environment and recall of traditional methods of farming make them a forward facing organisation that acknowledges, respects and carries the path with them. Their love for the environment, and the hope and methods they’ve instilled in their community make them one of our #FacesofTransformation.