 Our collaboration with KPF has been growing over the years since 2001 into a very happy success story. It all began because we felt so strongly about the heritage behind Redbush Tea that we wanted to give back something to the descendants of the people
who first discovered this amazing plant. In so doing we hope to help them
in some way to preserve their culture. The Redbush Tea Company each year gives a percentage of the profits from the sale of their teas to the Kalahari Peoples Fund (K.P.F.). They are a 30 year old, non-profit organisation that came together to help the San and other peoples in southern Africa. KPF raises funds and provides technical and advisory assistance, principally in the areas of community based land & resource rights. Most critical in its mission are achieving progress in education, human rights and development land use planning, as well as assisting in building schools, medical facilities etc.
 The San lived over a wide area, and were not restricted by political boundaries. The San like many indigenous and minority groups are deeply committed to promoting their cultural and socio-economic rights. There are today about 85,000 left in six southern African countries including South Africa. They represent our last connection to the hunter-gatherer existence, a life style that was universal until 10,000 years ago. Today the human rights issues which they have to deal with are similar to those in other parts of the world; discrimination, difficulty gaining access to land and natural resources and being subject to re-settlement programmes away from their ancestral areas are some of their typical problems. Numerous San were killed, tortured or made homeless as a result of the Angolan war.
 Essentially The Redbush Tea Company through your support will help the KPF to work with the San groups to promote innovative community based development programmes. These will range from training community members to become local teachers, ensuring that their culture and language is sustained, forming craft co-operatives, establishing farmland where crops can be grown to support communities to buying computers for their schools.
 Each edition of Redbush News has since covered in detail what the monies raised have been spent on that year, and this in turn is always decided following discussions with the board at KPF. We do this in order to ensure that we sustain a long term plan with them and that we do not just work in an ad hoc way. To this extent we work each year within their Village Schools Project (VSP). We chose this area because ensuring that their children are taught in their own language and within their own communities is very important. When the San children were made to go to schools in large towns, they often ran away - not only unhappy away from their families but also the victims of bullying and ridicule; their poverty being extreme even by poorer southern African standards. Because of the VSP, teachers are now being trained from within their community, and all children have the chance to go to school and complete what we would consider to be a primary school education (to age 11). Thanks to KPF there are now over 5 schools in Namibia where children can walk to school.
For a fuller account of what we have achieved so far please see our Redbush News pages, but they can be summarised as follows;
| 2002 | Lamination machines to preserve precious books, display and teaching materials from heat and dust. |
| 2003 | In collaboration with BP Solar and Sony Corporation USA we purchased printers, digital camera, laptop and solar installations. In addition two members of the Ju/'hoan* community Kaqece Kallie N!ani and Dahm Kim Dabe are being trained to operate and help with the overall curriculum so that written materials and training are in the Ju/'hoan language and can therefore be used in all Ju/'hoan areas of Namibia. |
| 2004/2005 | We teamed up with Time Warner Book Group UK who endorsed Redbush Tea as the tea of choice of Mma Ramotswe and her No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency, from the award winning series of books by Alexander McCall Smith. We raised money through the sale of promotional packs of Redbush Tea to raise money to build a new pre-school in the Ju/'hoan village of Den/ui. This was our most successful promotion to date as we raised sufficient funds to not only build the school but also to pay for equipment and two teachers salaries for a year (will be Namibian Government funded thereafter). Alexander McCall Smith said when he learned how successful the project had been 'I am delighted that the money was raised in this way and I am particularly thrilled that a school was built as a result. This is very good news indeed.' |
| 2005 | Literacy project - While the Namibian government has agreed to pay the necessary teacher and trainee salaries additional funding is still needed to cover the cost of books and literacy materials as well as equipment to help the teachers continue to help develop 'mother tongue' education projects with the Ju/'hoan and other San peoples. Redbush Tea has covered the cost of this. We have also made a substantial contribution towards a Ju/'hoan community book project, paying for transcribing and translation of word for word recordings of Ju/'hoan elders. |
| 2006 | 2006/2007 Once again sees us join up with Little, Brown Book Group (formerly Time Warner) and award winning author Alexander McCall Smith, with a promotion to help raise more money for the VSP. A new book in the No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency series - Blue Shoes & Happiness is being published in February 2007 and the author has kindly agreed to let us promote this while fund raising for KPF. Further details of how your money will be spent will be updated later next year once this has been agreed with the KPF board of directors. |
We will continue to keep our Redbush customers updated through this web site, as to how your money is being spent, and also through updates in Redbush News. This way you can see how you are helping the San to improve their lives and to ensure the safety of their culture.
"Our children are our treasure.
They are our future."
Di//Xao=Oma, Den/ui, Nyae Nyae, Namibia
If you are interested in helping the KPF further you can go directly to their web site, and subscribe to their newsletter or make an additional donation towards this remarkable fund.
(The use of punctuation marks such as ! or / indicate that the words are in one of the 'click' languages of southern Africa. In this case they are in the Ju/'hoan language.)
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