When Jules and I first met Trenton Birch and Linda Siboto in Cape Town a few years back, we were very excited at the prospect of a Cannabis Academy for South Africa. This was a line item on our big white board in the Fields of Green for ALL office and we never knew how we would tick that one off! Cheeba Africa is now very much a reality and a truly “Elevated Cannabis Experience” has been born!

After Jules was murdered there have been a few times when the light has shone through and one of these moments is when the folks from Cheeba announced that they would be launching their Dagga Couple Scholarship.

As the plans for the Academy became a reality, Trenton and Linda expanded their team and we have been working with Amy & Sarah, who have been the backbone of their Gauteng Campus and 3 month course syllabus, together with a team consisting of many familiar faces. It is great to see people who have been in the underground of the unregulated Cannabis industry for so long, coming out into the light and sharing their knowledge with the next generation of Cannabis industry entrepreneurs & leaders. As the old saying goes: “I love it when a plan comes together.”

Earlier this year the Fields of Green for ALL team got to meet the first intake of students and, among them, the first recipients of The Dagga Couple scholarshipNompumelelo Mbekisa and Tshegofatso Motshwanedi – both from Rustenburg in the North West Province, a province that is often overlooked in discussions around the future of Cannabis in SA. Nompumelelo & Tshegofatso have done brilliantly in their course and I am super proud of their achievements.

Slide below to see the before and after pic from the start of their journey, to their recent graduation!

On Saturday I attended the graduation of the first Cheeba Academy students and my heart swelled with pride at the accomplishment of the students as well as the course leaders, teachers and support staff. This is a huge step forward for SA Cannabis and the second intake of students are ready to rock at the Cheeba Academy Gauteng Campus.

We loved it when the last batch of students visited Jules and my home here at The Jazzfarm and look forward to welcoming the new intake to visit our garden. There is a solid synergy between Fields of Green for ALL, The Jazzfarm and the Cheeba team. We think the same way. Fostering a foundation of mindfulness with deep consideration of the bigger picture is what it is all about in this crazy weed world.

Thank you to EVERYONE at Cheeba for this awesome relationship. We have exciting plans for the most important aspects of Cannabis education and will be working closely together. Watch this space…

Speaking of working closely together, I had a great time earlier today when I popped by the Cheeba Campus to give the activism lecture and introduce Fields of Green for ALL to an enthusiastic class of new students, including some familiar friendly faces! Cheeba is one of our local affiliate organisations who are community driven and donate to the cause by helping to further our aims and objectives. I look forward to seeing Cheeba and their students continue to grow from strength to strength.

Myrtle