Calabash Trust
The Calabash has been a useful item for African communities since time began. A Calabash has been used to nourish, develop and grow people. It has been used to carry water, or grain, to make music as a rattle, or to hold herbs and medicinal compounds. It is flexible enough to be used in many different ways.
This is how the Calabash Trust likes to see itself, and indeed is seen by many of the communities we serve. We are a small, Non Profit Organisation, based in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, with a purpose of working with poor communities based in the urban townships of Port Elizabeth.
Calabash Trust began in 1998 when Marion Gate, who had recently moved to Port Elizabeth with her
husband, decided to take a Real City Tour with Calabash Tours. This tour company was founded by Paul and Thandi Miedema in 1997, with the aim of bridging the gap between the affluent side of South African life that most visitors are exposed to and the underprivileged Black African majority.
Marion was deeply moved by the poverty and struggle of 70% of Ports Elizabeth’s population who live within the township areas of the City. She felt moved to make a contribution, especially children living in these disadvantaged communities. Paul and Marion shared the same vision and it was important to both, that tourism should benefit the local communities and together they decided to form a Trust as an open transparent forum through which tourists could donate to the schools and projects they visited on the tour.
In 1999 Calabash Trust was born. Its aim, to make tourism work for the disadvantaged communities within Port Elizabeth and surrounding areas where thousands of children live below poverty lines. With the help of many overseas friends and tourists Calabash Trust has grown significantly, and together with Calabash Tours has won International awards for responsible pro poor tourism. Calabash Trust to date assists many schools, pre-schools and youth projects in and around the Port Elizabeth area. Through donations of food, school furniture, skill development training, food gardens, sports fields etc. we really are making an impact on the townships of our city. We work closely with the communities and projects to identify the needs. We are not donor driven and pride ourselves in involving everyone at grass roots level to identify the needs within their community. Through financial donations from our sponsors and donors we are able to ensure these needs are met and sustained.
It is a constant effort to keep the projects and the school’s programme funded, however through our efforts and our transparent handling of donations; we have ensured that the Trust has a solid foundation from which to continue to grow. All our donations are enormously valued as it ensures our work can continue as we strive to build a better South Africa.
We are remarkable in that we are ordinary people who decided to not allow the devastation of poverty and deprivation resulting from Apartheid be someone else’s problem. Rather, we felt we needed to do something, and find a way to be useful, like the Calabash is useful.
"Calabash Trust, making tourism work for the local community in Port Elizabeth, South Africa!"
