Vanwyksdorp Development Institute (VDI) is a not-for-profit company aimed at the socio-economic upliftment of poor rural communities, primarily in Vanwyksdorp and the surrounding Klein Karoo. The means to achieve the Vision and Mission is the establishment of a learning campus that provides the environment and opportunity to learn skills and incubate entrepreneurial activities.
Healthy, employable youth, with better opportunities for their lives.
Vanwyksdorp lies 33km along a dirt road, as you turn off the R62, 10km outside Ladismith on the way to Barrydale. No one noticed the small old town this far away from a highway. Once upon a time, it was one of the largest apricot growers and those very orchards perished all in the drought until only a few remained. Of the approximately 46 farmers, only 4 farmers remained in the severe drought-stricken area. André Britz is one of these farmers.
As farmers left the area, farmworkers were forced to move to Vanwykdorp and so the town ended up with a major unemployment issue. The philanthropist Pieter Coetzee along with André Britz, then Project Manager of Jobs 4 Carbon (J4C), decided to urgently address this issue and the dream of the Vanwyksdorp Development Institute (VDI) arose. Pieter started an olive farm, which is labour-intensive, and André worked with Jobs for Carbon, which at that time employed 60 unemployed people.
Our three projects VDI, J4C, and Environmental Education
Initial funding came through donations. In 2018, we started the development as a project under the auspices of the Gouritz Cluster Biosphere Reserve (GCBR). The VDI is a non-profit company fully registered on the Companies Register of South Africa. A board of Directors from the wider community and the community of the Gouritz catchment area manages the VDI.
Where do we stand now?
What does the VDI mean in practice?
What courses have been offered to date?
Our ideals
It is a field rehabilitation project and is funded by a philanthropic European family. We do this by planting bacon trees in previously overgrazed areas, under the watchful eye of botanists and the collaboration of several universities. We currently employ 44 workers who generate income for their families. The project is in its seventh year and is seen by the European Union as one of the best-managed projects they have funded in the last 25 years.
We currently serve 9 schools in the GCBR catchment area. All our activities are based on 60% environmental impact and a 40% socio-economic impact. Each school is taken to a camp every year. Grade 6 and 7 pupils participate in:
Due to Covid, we could not roll out the school program as planned. The funds are now used to create a ‘green’ footprint at each school. We install canopies, plant shade trees, and large quantities of bacon trees. Water tanks, pumps, fences, and other necessities are also on the list.
The financial resources of all our projects are managed in an extremely transparent manner and all accounts are audited annually.
Here is a primary school (built in 1912) that accommodates 150 pupils up to grade 7. With incentives from the olive farm and J4C, parents can now afford to let their children continue their school careers in Ladismith and Riversdale, respectively.
We do not have an ATM or a filling station in the dirt road town. Here are two eateries in the town, with Rooiberg Lodge outside the town. Ourselves (as Jobs 4 Carbon) are stationed at Pastorie of the NG Kerk Gemeente. The church was built in 1907 and the congregation has shrunk to 60, of which 26 are active members.
André is co-founder and Chairman of the VDI NPC, as well as Executive Director of J4C NPC.
His ancestors were part of the founders of the town. He was born here, went to school here, and returned to his town after his studies and Army service, where he came to farm.
Ina is Andrè’s second in charge of our 4 projects called Jobs 4 Carbon, VDI, Environmental Education, and a nursery.
I was born in the Little Karoo, started my career as a horticulturist in the plant industry at the Institute for the Deaf in Worcester, where my eldest daughter also followed her school career at the De La Bat school. I moved to George 16 yrs ago and got involved with Jobs 4 Carbon 4 yrs ago. As Deputy Manager of J4C, I handle part of the administration, landowners interaction, general management of the project, manage the J4C office, act as secretary of the meetings of the Boards of Directors of the VDI and J4C, serve as photographer, manage the school program, offers courses in Landscape Architecture, trains women at the office in the hospitality industry, does our marketing, builds the office and church gardens, trains workers in planting vegetable gardens, builds and manages a succulent nursery.
Ina Scholtz and André Britz