Ifa Lethu goes green with development programmes

"There is an urgent need for South African's cultural heritage to be well protected for posterity. This will be the legacy we leave to our youth who will ultimately become the stewards of such heritage," Ifa Lethu's CEO, Dr Narissa Ramdhani, told delegates at the recently held COP17 in Durban. "The very fact that we are repatriating lost heritage back to our country is but one factor of our core business, and I like to think of this aspect as being in line with international environmental concerns. These heritage works play an important role in the training and transfer of indigenous skills from older South African artists to the youth and communities we develop."

Devoted to poverty alleviation

"Our development programmes are devoted to poverty alleviation and economic sustainability and have focused on taking these skills to rural communities where poverty is rampant. The key component of these programmes focuses on teaching rural youth and communities about the importance of environmental responsibility. Since we aimed to create sustainable programmes, we focused on using locally available materials - either natural or recycled - and that took skills to create market-ready products," Ramdhani said.

"These programmes are conducted initially from our mobile workshop which travels deep into the rural area of South Africa. Areas covered are located in the provinces of KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Gauteng, the Northwest, Mpumalanga and the Free State. Once we have trained groups to make desirable items, we have established business incubators which we manage to provide the community with a safe and comfortable place to create their products for trade and export. We also provide them with business training so their efforts truly become sustainable and support their families," she concluded.