Meet Our Team from

QwaQwa, South Africa

QwaQwa is an area within the Free State province in the country of South Africa, one of the poorest parts of the country. Over the past couple of years, the area has experienced severe problems with water scarcity, seriously threatening human livelihoods, animal livelihoods and small-scale farmers. A few areas in the municipality have been without running water for years. This has led to widespread protests.

Our heroes are a diverse collective of artists, storytellers, and educators. They have a vision for establishing a STEM center at the heart of their community for helping children gain an education.

The team realised that many public spaces were being used as dumping ground, so they set out to transform their local landscapes by converting them to composting corners.

Soon Team QwaQwa had partnered with a local old-age home to use their grounds to compost larger quantities of wet and market waste that they would collect from local neighborhood homes and supermarkets, providing livelihood opportunities to many people in their local community. They used the compost in the community garden they planted, distributing the vegetables to feed vulnerable members of their community.

QwaQwa is a Take-Off Team

A Take-Off Team has been going for several months and has an established track record.

Performance to date
Start Date
March 2021
Sprints
2
Abatement
37 TONNES CO2e
That’s equivalent to the carbon that 44 acres of forest will absorb in a year or CO2 emitted by burning 3,600 gallons of diesel
Equity
113
Targets for this year
Abatement
630 TONNES CO2e
That’s equivalent to the carbon that 746 acres of forest will absorb in a year or CO2 emitted by burning 62,000 gallons of diesel
Equity
1,000
QwaQwa Context
Population
353,452
(source)
Average Annual Income
USD 2,204 (R 32,400)
(source)
Per Capita emissions (South Africa)
7.5 Tonnes CO2e
(source)

Start-Up Phase Supported by

News & Updates

QwaQwa has just completed Level 3. During this phase they attracted support from the Royal Family, who still manage approximately 50% of local land. They are preparing for Level 4 and aiming to expand land use across the region, building compost parks and growing food. At the same time the team wants to build a zero emissions transport network which will have a positive commercial impact on the region.

This year the team is aiming to support over 1000 low income families, earning less than USD$ 2000 a year, directly. The year after the goal is to expand that by a factor of x10