The Valley Trust was begun by Dr Halley Harwin Stott in 1951.The Valley Trust is situated in the Valley of a Thousand Hills, which lies north of Durban and which was previously a designated "Native Reserve" for Zulu-speaking people. In the 1950s, malnutrition and disease were rife amongst the valley's inhabitants. Dr Stott, an Edinburgh-trained doctor, was convinced that this pervasive malnutrition and disease was a result of a multiplicity of social, economic, cultural and environmental factors, and thus sought to initiate a holistic approach to the health problems of the valley.
The Valley Trust was conceived as a socio-medical project, focussed upon promoting the general health and well-being of the valley's inhabitants, rather than as a purely curative medical endeavour. This holistic approach was chosen over a purely curative medical approach because Dr Stott felt that curative medicine and treatment alone were incapable of preventing health deterioration that resulted, in part, from social and environmental factors. At the urging of Dr Stott, a government-run health clinic was established, and using this clinic as a spearhead into the community, Dr Stott began to establish and develop his main concern, that of nutrition. Convinced that poor dietary habits lay at the root cause of the poor health of the valley's inhabitants, he adopted a self-help philosophy, at the heart of which was using the contacts made with patients and their families at the health clinic as a means of educating people in cost-effective and environmentally-appropriate agricultural methods, as well as in cooking methods, childcare, hygiene and other related issues.
Dr Stott was particularly interested in fostering the agricultural work of the Trust as he wished people to start growing their own staple foods rather than purchasing processed foods from stores. The highly successful demonstration gardens planted and maintained by the Trust not only proved that the soil in the Valley was not as agriculturally useless as had been previously thought, but were also effective in drawing people's attention to the primary work of the Trust and in getting people interested in examining and perhaps adopting Valley Trust methods.
Services provided by The Valley Trust included medical services, a Nutrition Education Unit, demonstration gardens and kitchens with personnel to explain the various methods being used, fish dams, home produce markets, schools, maize mills and a sports association. The Valley Trust has proved to be a very successful endeavour, and is still operation in June 2000. However the main emphasis of the Trust has shifted in alignment with the pressing issues of our times, with more emphasis on issues such as HIV/AIDS and related concerns.
