It is easy to see why the research being conducted by Rhodes University and the University of Fort Hare in the Siyakhula Living Lab is of great importance to the country and Africa as a whole. It has produced tangible beneficial effects for the impoverished communities of the Mbashe district of the Eastern Cape in South Africa, as well as arousing international interest in the project. It shows in a practical fashion how marginalised rural communities that are very difficult to reach, may in future be joined