A GROUP of volunteers,members of the Youth Agricultural and Rural Development (YARD)organisation,have lauched a clean-up campaigh in the city.The group started their clean-up operation at church square before moving to other parts of pretoria.Yard founder lehlogonolo mokoena said the organisation ,which was formed in 2009,would focus not only on the inner city ,but also on outlying areas such as Mamelodi,Atteridgeville and Hammanskraal.Mokoena said they were operating in partnership with the Tshwane Metro Council and their aim was to recycle some of the  waste collected.He said the Yard's objective is to empower women and young people and encourage them to take part in community activities.The environment played an important part in people's lives ,"so we have to love our environment,since most of the things that we use come from nature",he  added.The volunteers recently visited Dr WF Nkomo Secondary School in Atteridgeville.They cleaned up the area and planted a vegetable garden,he said.Mokoena added that they wanted to start a food garden for poor people in the township.People would be given seeds to plant so that they would be able to grow their own food.Yard has also started several co-operatives,which include Pholoshang Basadi(Rescue Women) and Sithuthukisa Bonke(We help everyone)

This is my article that was published in Pretoria News on 02 june 2011