You can help create or become part of a learning network that seeks to innovate new solutions to today’s social and economic challenges.

You can volunteer time and or expertise to support a specific piece of work.

You can make a cash contribution to a project.

You can offer advice, technical expertise, eco-friendly technology or finance.

Our preference is for you to visit the farm, meet the people, have a conversation, learn of their work and then explore how best you can get involved.

You can contact us by sending an email to Gino Govender at govendergino@gmail.com or enquiries@earthrisetrust.org.za, or you can contact the chair of the Naledi Village Committee, Anton Chaka by sending an email to antonnaledi@gmail.com.

We are currently working on getting a donation portal up and running.

In the meantime, if you would like to support Earthrise Trust with your time, expertise, donations or donations in kind, please email Gino Govender on govendergino@gmail.com

Your support is greatly appreciated!

Surrounded by the beauty of nature, we invite you to retreat, relax, reflect and recharge in the heart of the Free State. EarthRise Mountain Lodge is more than just an idyllic getaway and conference facility, though, it’s a new way of life.

By staying at the lodge you are supporting the EarthRise Trust, a social development project that aims to develop the local Naledi Village community by providing opportunities for sustainable livelihoods, as well as access to quality healthcare and education.

[See image gallery at earthrisetrust.org.za]

By combining education (theory) with production (practice), Earthrise will bring on board local and international actors to implement development that represents a transformative shift in the developmental model. By integrating participatory leadership, shared ownership and governance we will ensure long term viability and sustainability.

We have embarked on an important journey; one we believe that with perseverance can create the conditions to learn and build practical ways to move towards sustainability in the 21st century for the benefit of all the grandchildren, great grandchildren and those yet to be born. By working closely with like-minded people across borders we can heed the call by the late Nelson Mandela who, on the occasion of the Earth Hour, urged: “Let us stand together to make of our world a sustainable source for our future as humanity on this planet.”

In keeping with the Trust’s visions and founding aims, Earthrise will partner with Civicus, a leading global civil society organisation, committed to building an enabling environment for citizens to participate in building a just, sustainable and peaceful world.  In the short term this partnership will focus on assessing how and whether the UN Post 2015 Agenda can be used as a framework for rethinking and sculpting a future of peaceful humanity, and to examine the key transformational shifts needed to successfully meet the basic needs of all humans e.g. the right to food, shelter, education, health and livelihoods.

In the medium to long term, Earthrise wants to invest in and promote sustainable, long term and collaborative programmes for young people passionate about building a just, sustainable and peaceful world.

To take this idea forward, the Trust will, in the near future, undertake a feasibility study for a development programme that aims to build the next generation of civic leaders committed to a new social and environmental development paradigm.  The development programme will create space for actors from civil society focusing on, but not limited to, young people and women in order to promote active civic participation and engagement as a vital condition in overcoming the long term challenges we face as humanity.

[See image gallery at earthrisetrust.org.za]

When the Earthrise Trust acquired Rustlers Valley Farm, the trustees pledged to assist the community of Naledi in developing a self-determining and sustainable community. The Trust will take forward its commitment in the deed of sale to transfer a 40 hectare portion of the farm to residents of Naledi Village to achieve land rights for residence and subsistence purposes. Intended for the people, this will finally give ownership and management of good land to labourers who for many years worked on Rustlers Valley and surrounding farms.

Based on the status quo of Naledi, an appropriate development course would be to see the infrastructure in the village upgraded to provide basic services, and for the community to be able to maximise its leverage on the land to create agrarian-based productivity and sustainability.

The Trust will encourage the use of participatory community mapping tools for the community to raise awareness and develop their own collective knowledge of the land and natural resource related issues and to use this knowledge to promote social cohesion and lays the groundwork for long term sustainable rural development model.

To emphasise the people dimensions of development, the Trust has enlisted the support of an experienced skills development specialist who has volunteered to investigate opportunities and facilitate the development of a skills profile of residents to assist in future skills research, planning and development.

In principle, agreement has also been reached on the education with production model for the creation of small enterprises for farm maintenance contracts, tourism hospitality services and the building of a creative arts production and marketing centre.  Similarly, discussions are underway with a neighbouring farm regarding a potential nursery school. Finally, the Trust has initiated a partnership with the Franshoek Primary School and village residents, on a school building improvement plan.

[See image gallery at earthrisetrust.org.za]

The key implementation partners will be the Naledi Village Committee and a team of young expert agriculturalists called Afrigrow,  along with the Seriti Institute – an organisation specialising in community-driven public works projects.

Earthrise’s strategy is to support Naledi Village in pursuing a holistic approach to the development of a sustainable community. With the aim of producing high quality, organic products for local and international markets, we will develop systems to support family kitchen gardens and communal farming efforts in partnership with residents of the area.

The partnership will also incubate and support small enterprise development for farming maintenance services, a local farmer’s market, transport and distribution networks that will also benefit surrounding villages.

The strategy will result in eco-sustainable communal farming methods leading to skills transfer and training, social entrepreneurship and productivity, and long-term solutions to poverty and inequality.

The Trust has engaged engineers working alongside locally-recruited construction workers to improve the built environment, creating in the process a sense of local ownership and long-term commitment to the project.

In keeping with its goal of stimulating local economy, the Trust has emphasised the procurement of necessary tools, equipment and services from local towns, thus creating or rebuilding trade relationships.

For the medium- to long-term, the design, development and implementation of sustainable natural resources strategy has been commissioned for land use, water and energy.

The global crisis in food prices continues to make headlines across the globe for rising prices. The hardest hit demographic are the poor, particularly in Africa, indicating a vital need for food security and sustainable livelihoods to ensure social stability and cohesion. Furthermore, global environment is under strain and climate change is the biggest threat to our society today. Climate change is no longer a threat in the distant future and unfortunately the poor suffer the most.

Because small farmers often lack the expertise and resources necessary to succeed in the highly competitive farming industry, implementing projects with small scale farming communities can have employment, income generation and sustainability impact, as well as long-term commercial viability.

Whilst Africa is the home to half the world’s usable uncultivated land, the continent has not been able to use these tracts to enact meaningful change in this arena.  In recognition of the continuous challenges of hunger, malnutrition and rural poverty, the African Union has also declared 2014 as the “Year of Agriculture and Food Security in Africa”. In the words of Rhoda Tamusiime, the AU Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, “We cannot talk about African Dignity without the ability to feed ourselves”.

With this in mind, Earthrise Trust sought to build a sustainable, rural community and found a candidate in the form of Rustlers Valley Farm, situated in the Eastern Free State. This area is primarily made up of large-scale commercial agriculture along the Caledon River, with a growing number of organic farmers and white-owned farms. Despite a small number of large-scale black economic empowerment farms focusing on apples and grapes, there is currently very little opportunity for black farmers to own land and build small holder farming.

Job creation and increased levels of income are of paramount importance to creating a rural culture of self-worth, independence and pride in their community. The introduction of holistic farming opportunities and primary and preventative health services is the only realistic way of improving the quality of life of marginalised rural people.

Agrarian transformation would entail improving the productivity, economic viability and sustainability of farm enterprises, with a focus on rural initiatives, co-operatives and vibrant local markets. The aim is to empower rural communities, particularly women and youth, thus transforming power relations and contributing to:

• Economic growth, with economic benefits experienced at local level;
• Efficiency in water use through suitable technologies;
• Ensures availability of land for socio economic development, economic growth through the agricultural sector and access to food security, and;
• Improved production.

The successful implementation of this policy will result in a sustainable, self-sufficient community which features skilled agricultural entrepreneurs who own and manage competitive small-scale agroecology enterprises. This gives the marginalised populace a human voice, enabling social participation and local growth

— The Earth Charter, a United Nations-inspired initiative

The preamble to the Earth Charter is a clarion call to action by concerned citizens, to rethink and reset the current direction in which people and our planet are heading. It calls for fresh thinking and action for new development possibilities which deliberately focus on building resilient, inclusive, just, sustainable and peaceful societies that promote environmental awareness and protection for the benefit of future generations.  

The Earth Charter comprises four pillars, namely respect and care for community of life, ecological integrity, social and economic justice and democracy, non-violence and peace.

Inspired by the Earth Charter, the Earthrise Trust was founded as a not-for-profit social activist initiative, dedicated to building a new development paradigm that advances the ideals and principles enshrined in the Charter.

The Trust was founded and is dedicated to:

1) Creating a foundation for transformative initiatives to promote new ways of thinking and action that highlights the indivisibility between environmental protection and human development in the transition towards a just, sustainable and peaceful world;

2) Understanding and addressing the structural causes of growing inequality, poverty and marginalisation and in the process cultivating capacity and building momentum for a new community-inspired and community-based development paradigm;

3) Attracting a community of “socially conscious supporters’ committed to becoming an active part of a local and global learning movement working to build a positive legacy for future generations;

4) Rebuilding and guardianship of the historic Rustlers Valley Farm in Ficksburg as a pilot “collaborative development space” to take the ideals of the Earth Charter forward.

These four pillars are integral to and underpin the vision of the Rustlers Valley Farm Initiative.

In August 2013, following a decision by the shareholders to sell the farm, shareholders unanimously considered the Earthrise Trust the preferred buyer due to the vision outlined by trustees to use the land to build sustainable rural communities.

Since September 2013, members of the Earthrise Trust organised and hosted a series of conversations with key individuals to listen, learn and understand the farm’s history, the relationships that exist amongst residents, and to gain feedback on Earthrise’s ideas, and the possibility of implementing these ideas and objectives at the farm. Working together to reach consensus on how best to reinvigorate Rustlers Valley Farm, the Trust had begun forging relationships with residents based on mutual trust and respect.

Arising from these discussions are four goals, each carrying a set of achievable objectives:

1. Reconstructing the built environment – injecting new life
2. Building a Cooperative Small Holder Eco Farming Programme
3. Building a Partnership for Rural Development with Naledi Village
4. Building a Retreat and Hub for Development Innovation

They are aligned, interconnected and phased broadly in sequence of the unfolding Earthrise Vision of “building rural livelihoods and wellbeing for a just, sustainable and peaceful world”.  Goals 2 and 3 are the primary flagship developmental goals to achieve the vision.  Goals 1 and 4 are complimentary, supportive and lay the basis for the built environment and people to achieve and sustain the flagship developmental goals.

Click here to meet our trustees.