Inspired by the volunteer efforts being made in SA Thatu was launched in the UK late in 2004 by a small group of enthusiastic and multi-skilled volunteers.

Thatu was a young man who lived in a village in South Africa where paid work was scarce. He supported himself and his family with casual gardening or labouring jobs. He died of AIDS - just four months earlier he had been fit enough to do heavy manual work.

Thatu is a charitable initiative that grew out of the needs highlighted by the lives and deaths of people like Thatu.

Improving nutrition enables people to withstand the debilitation of HIV. For some children the only food they get in a day is the school lunch, possibly two slices of white bread with a smearing of jam and peanut butter. Those with AIDS who are lucky enough to get anti-retroviral medicines need food if the drugs are to be beneficial.

Thatu's founder and trustees decided to concentrate on funding sustainable community food gardens, because improving nutrition and the environment would help both children and adults.

In 2005 Thatu obtained registration as a UK charity. From the Cape Flats in Cape Town to Pretoria near Johannesburg, Thatu has now helped to fund six food gardens.

In 2007 our goal is to raise our target of £25,000 from both corporate and community fundraising efforts in the UK and elsewhere, to honour our commitments to ongoing projects and to enable us to expand our operations to other areas.

The 'rainbow nation' speech at Nelson Mandela's inauguration has had far reaching effects.

"Why did you volunteer to work in a community garden?"

"Because of rainbow," replied one young South African.

"What does rainbow mean?"

"It means we do things differently and we do them for ourselves."