Alexandra and Michael Guenther, a German couple, first came to South Africa at the end of 1999, to volunteer at a Camphill School for children with special needs in the Western Cape, near Cape Town.

From then on the idea and understanding of the greatness of the need in some parts of South Africa was formed in their minds.

In 2003 Alexandra, the professional educator and Michael, who is a mechanical technician, started to put their idea of establishing a home and perma-culture project for people with special needs into practise; at a place where the need is huge: in the rural, underprivileged former Transkei of the Eastern Cape in South Africa.

Putting the idea into practise...

By the middle of the year 2004, the non-profit Organisation Ikhaya Loxolo (Isixhosa for ‚home of peace') was registered, contact with the local chief and ward councillor being established.

When Alexandra and Michael got invited by the chief and his community, to put their idea into practise at the Hobeni community, the couple finally moved to the former Transkei, to stay in their first donated item: a 30- year old caravan.

The Area

Hobeni is a remote village, situated within the still undeveloped Elliotdale district, one of the poorest areas in South Africa. Ikhaya Loxolo is 8km inland from Cwebe Nature Reserve within the well known wild coast area.

60 km gravel road from the nearest Town Elliotdale (nearest Post office), from there another 70 km (tar road)to Mthatha (previously Umtata), where groceries, any kind of Material and almost everything else can be purchased.

Establishing Ikhaya Loxolo

In November 2004 one ha of fertile land was allocated to the organisation by the community (tribal land).

After fencing in the area (local livestock walks around freely!) and setting up some gardens, the building work was started.

Firstly Alexandra and Michael needed to establish a house for them to live in, after staying in an 8 square meter caravan for 1 1/2 years. This house was built in the traditional way- using handmade mud blocks, mud plaster and wood from the nearby forest to structure the roof as well as grass to thatch the roof.

Half a year later the building work of the second house, also traditional style, just much bigger than a common Rondavel, was started. This house serves as kitchen, dining area and inside workshops.

In the meantime, due to climatic extremes, this house broke down and was built up again twice, presently got built up a third and hopefully last time! I should like to mention, this house was not the only building of the area that couldn't withstand Gail force winds combined with heavy ongoing rainfalls. Many other buildings in this area were destroyed at the same time; materials that are taken from nature are inclined to be summoned back by nature once in a while. Every day we learn!

From August 2006 to February 2007 the building team established a ‚Flat'- meaning a square house with separate sleeping rooms inside. The material used here was soil and a small part of cement to create Compressed Earth Blocks, cement plaster, and corrugated iron sheets for the roof. Since the Flat is quite huge (it will provide sleeping space for max 15 people), the roof is huge as well and collects a lot of rainwater- if it rains!

Climate wise

It's a subtropical climate in this part of the Eastern Cape. Summer- October to February- the rainy season is present with all its heat, humidity, afternoon thunderstorms and warm nights. We have observed so far, that in September and October the rainfalls are most heavy and there are long periods of time where the rain doesn't stop. Whereas in ‘real' summer-November, December, January, even February- we have lots of thundershowers, but usually no ongoing rainfall.

After that, March, April and May are still giving us some heat, with hardly any rain, dry air, blue skies but a chill in the air.

Winter is windy, often with Gail force winds, no rain at all, air at its driest and brutally cold evenings and nights (5 degrees in a non-insulated house, mud floor and wind getting in through the roof seems ‘very' cold to us!).

Infrastructure

The Hobeni/Elliotdale District area is a rural, undeveloped area. The infrastructure, especially the roads- mainly very poorly maintained gravel roads- hardly allow people to get to a hospital or clinic.

Some parts of the Elliotdale district are lucky to have received water taps at central points of a road for example. Other parts, like most of Hobeni village, are still waiting..... as they are for toilets and electricity, roads and hospitals.

Ikhaya Loxolo itself is only 200m away from the mbhanjana river, where from water gets pumped into a 5ooo litre water tank at Ikhaya Loxolo. This water irrigates the garden and is used to wash the washing as well as bodies and cookery. 300m up the hill there is a central point of a water tap-we belong to the lucky ones and chose this locality of the project partly for this reason. That's the drinking water provision for Ikhaya Loxolo, as well as the 2500l water tank that's collecting rain water (in summer) from the roof of the ‘flat'.

A solar panel is just providing enough voltage to run the laptop a few hours a day as well as charge cell phones and radio/torch batteries. A stove, freezer and fridge run with Gas.

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The Garden

Produce from the garden doesn't only contribute to the diet of Ikhaya Loxolo's team, but it IS the diet.

Depending on season, this is what grows in the gardens:

Tomatoes, Peppers, Onion, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Cabbage, Spinach, Chinese and red Cabbage, Carrots, Beetroot, Leek, Maize, Potatoes, sweet Potato, Lettuce, Herbs, Chillies, Garlic, Radishes, Strawberries, Beans, and many things that I am forgetting to mention right now.

An Israeli Drip Irrigation System is established in four 10x10m squares and is planted in rotation; one month one square- 1500 mixed seedlings per square. Arriving at square number one in the 4^th month, it is just ready to be prepared and planted again.

There are furthermore many other mixed Perma-culture gardens (we grow organic vegetables), making sure we will never run out of fresh food and all excess gets sold locally as well as to the nearby Haven Hotel and Bulungula Backpackers Lodge.

We are furthermore breeding chicken and rabbits, for the use and sale of eggs and meat, as well as composting the manure to fertilise the gardens.

Finances

Alexandra and Michael, with their Ikhaya Loxolo for people with special needs project, are the first in the wider Elliotdale area, and one of the only to create a home for mentally disabled people in the whole Eastern Cape. This means, there is no governmental budget to assist and support Ikhaya Loxolo, sad, but a fact; or at least that's what we are told.

Since South Africa has so far shown no interest to support this organisation, it is even the more difficult for Alexandra to raise sufficient funds to keep the project going.

Within the last three years Ikhaya Loxolo was glad to receive support from a German developmental service- the DED, the German consulate in Cape Town, the Software AG Stiftung in Germany, an organisation called ‘breadline Africa', as well as private German donors and small companies in Germany. All of these Donations (except private donations) were specified once off donations only to buy equipment and material; all items have to be fundraised and applied for piece by piece, in return invoices are sent to the donors/sponsors.

The German supportive non-profit-organisation ‘Ikhaya Loxolo Entwicklungshilfe e.V.' (put into life by friends and family of Alexandra and Michael)makes sure all money donated in Germany arrives at Ikhaya Loxolo in South Africa; they also send out proof of receipts of the donation, since companies like to claim their donation back from tax.

Aims and Objectives

Ikhaya Loxolo is striving for financial independency through self sufficiency and Sustainability by:

• - a combined local and ‘German' management, later only local management.
• - Careful financial planning and organisation
• - Sustainable gardening and farming through organic gardening and permaculture. (e.g. to work the garden in a non-abusive way, such as not emptying out the soil but balanced giving (compost)and taking (harvest) as well as crop rotation and mulching.)
• - Ongoing fundraising to support the project's aim of sustainability
• - Our volunteers (who do get paid a minimum wage) and local managers are getting trained in not only managing and organising the work, but also in gardening/farming and most important in care giving for people with special needs. This shall ensure Ikhaya Loxolo will one day be able to run by the local community itself.

The people with special needs shall receive respectful ‘treatment' and handling, shall feel needed and as important as every other person. We would like to give people with special needs enough space and support to gain dignity.

Workshops-like garden, farm, bakery,..- ensure not only that Ikhaya Loxolo has got enough food for all its members and an income through excess sale, but also:

• - that people with special needs find space to learn and find their own border of ability
• - that people with special needs feel they help and are needed, and therefore find a meaning to their life
• - that one or another only slightly ‘disabled' person might learn enough at Ikhaya Loxolo to actually be able to lead his/her own life outside Ikhaya Loxolo.

Objectives and aims of this organisation are structured quite rough and simple, since we prefer ‘working according to the need'. Being open to changes is one of our policies, and the headman of the Hobeni Community plays a great role in ensuring that Ikhaya Loxolo picks up on the present need; for example, we sell seedlings, fresh vegetables-since diet is at its worst in our locality, shops don't sell fresh food! We try and transport people to hospitals (when there is time)-since the project owns one of the two only cars of the area. We - the ‘educated ones'- help all people of the community with cell phone understanding and repairs, official letters and basic medication.

For further and more detailed information please ask for our proposal at

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