is an international living and learningcentre located outside the South African university town ofStellenbosch. Surrounded by the breathtaking beauty of the Cape`stowering mountains and rooted in an agricultural community needing tobreak free from its` racial past, the Sustainability Institute providesa space for people to explore an approach to creating a more equitablesociety that lives in a way that sustains rather than destroys theeco-system within which all society is embedded.TheSustainability Institute forms part of the wider Lynedoch EcoVillage.This is an emerging ecologically designed socially mixed communitybuilt around a learning precinct, the heart of which is the Lynedochpre- and Primary School attended by 450 children who come mainly fromthe families of farmworkers. This emerging community offers a uniqueAfrican setting where creative work and learning can be inspired by thejoys and challenges of sustainability in practice.Founded in1999, the Sustainability Institute provides residential accommodationfor visiting writers, artists, activists, volunteers and scholars, anda learning space for participants in the Institute`s variouseducational programmes. TheInstitute and the Lynedoch Primary School share a large ecologicallydesigned building. This is why children seem so present in the dailylife of the Institute. After the chattering and giggling children havegathered in the hall for the morning assembly, the Principal leads themin a prayer that often starts with a word of thanks for the beauty andwonder of the Western Cape`s unique ecosystem which includes the grandmountains peaks, the exceptional diversity of the `fynbos` plantkingdom, the ancient history of local settlement, and the wild andwindy coast. Although the children come from some of the poorestfamilies in the country, the Principal reminds them of the promise of abetter life through education. He offers them the possibility of hope.And this, in essence, is what sustainability is all about.
www.sustainabilityinstitute.net