Heartwood Homestead Internship Program

The pilot year for the agricultural internship program has just ended. This 9-month residential internship is supported by our partner Sihamba Sonke and run by Karen and Roger Galloway outside of East London, South Africa. Bathandwa Sigula, the first intern, has completed his internship at Heartwood Homestead.  Learning, both theoretical and experiential, included a very wide range of elements.  Bathandwa learned about livestock management, vegetable farming, land management, off grid systems, agritourism, business planning.  In addition, Bathandwa did some presentations and workshops with local high school students interested in pursuing their interests in agriculture.

Bathandwa celebrated his graduation from the program on December 3rd. His mother and grandfather joined him at the Galloway farm. He shared with them some of what he learned during the year. Having worked hard to learn many skills related to agriculture, sustainable living and homesteading, he is moving on to start his own business growing vegetables and raising chickens.  Karen and Roger consider their pilot year a big success and plan to start with two or three new interns in March 2022.  Thank you to all who donated to make this possible.  The annual cost for this internship program is approximately $9,050.