Social Impact Projects

Background: The Homestead

The Homestead was established in Cape Town in 1982. This organisation understands the potential that lies in our youth and works tirelessly to re-integrate boys (aged 6-18) who live on the streets of Cape Town, back into society. The Homestead has also developed an “early intervention model” aimed at identifying high risk children and vulnerable families and working toward preventing boys from turning to a life on the streets in the first place.

The Homestead model consists of four phases: Initially, a qualified street worker makes contact with the boy, building up a level of trust. The process of family reunification or referral to The Homestead’s support services begins here. The next step is to get them off the streets. The Yizani Drop-In Centre provides street children with some food and a hot shower during the week. Educational and recreational activities are also available. If after spending time here, the boy is not able or ready to go home, they are taken to The Homestead Intake Shelter in District Six. Whilst the boy is here, the attempt at family reunification is continued. In the instances where domestic problems are still present and the boy cannot return home, they are placed at the Elukhuselweni Children’s Home in Khayelitsha which has room for 75 boys.

The Homestead plays a significant role in re-building shattered young lives. A recent sample showed that 70% of the boys, who had been returned home: were still there and coping with life and school.

The Homestead Project: Child and Youth Care Development Centre, Khayelitsha

In 2006, The Homestead acquired a prime piece of land from the City in Site B, Khayelitsha. It was decided that this presented an ideal opportunity to build a new Child & Youth Care Centre which would be better suited to the needs of the boys, the staff and the community.

The new Centre will include 3 cottages which will accommodate the boys from the Elukhuselweni Children’s Home in age-specific groups (6-10, 11-15 and 16-18). It will also house counseling facilities, the Early Intervention Programme and a Community Hall. Finally, the building will also bring a shade of green to Khayelitsha with rainwater tanks, solar-powered geysers, grey water recycling, a vegetable garden and a grassed playing area.

Being exceptionally busy with the day to day running of their programmes; The Homestead called upon the SASDI Foundation to fundraise for and project manage the development of the new Centre. The total amount required for direct building costs is R9.8 million and we are looking to start building in January 2010. This is a very exciting project for Cape Town and we are thrilled to be a part of it!

http://www.homestead.org.za

Needs:

• Volunteer teams to help in the build (15-20 people for 5 days with a donation of R75 000 to cover building costs.
• Any monetary contribution, every little bit helps!
• Donations- in- kind: paint, window frames, cement etc…

Background: MzamOmhle Educare Centre

MzamOmhle Educare Centre is situated in the community of Wallacedene and has been run by Margaret Ngaleka for over 12 years. The Centre caters for children aged 0-6 and is the only crèche in the area that will take babies, thereby enabling mothers with minimum maternity leave to go back to work. Margaret and her team of four volunteers provide basic educare, security and two meals a day, which is often the only food the child will eat that day. MzamOmhle whilst primarily being a crèche is much more than that. It runs a soup kitchen in the community for HIV/Aids patients who are on anti-retroviral medication and need a decent meal in order to be able to take their oral medication. It also runs an Income Generation project aimed at helping the parents of children in the crèche to be gainfully employed and therefore in a better position to pay the crèche fees.

Although Margaret and her team are dedicated to providing the best care they can, they are limited by their environment. The crèche is based in a three bedroom shack which is a damp and unhealthy environment for the children. Parents often struggle to pay the R50 a month Margaret asks to look after their children and the requests for government funding are unable to keep up with the growing number of children she is looking after (she is registered for assistance for 50 children whereas she is currently looking after between 60 and 80 children on a given day). The lack of space also makes it hard to accommodate the HIV/Aids education and private counseling which is often required by people affected by the disease. There is also currently no space available for the Income Generation project, which means that the people involved have to work out of private homes.

MzamOmhle Educare Centre provides very useful services in a community ravaged by poverty. It provides practical solutions to serious problems, in a community where even existing on a day to day basis presents huge obstacles. SASDI is proud to support Margaret and her committee by working in partnership with them to create high impact solutions to the problems which they face.

SASDI Building Project: MzamOmhle Educare Centre

The primary aim of this project is to build a brick and mortar structure to house the MzamOmhle Educare Centre. This will provide a safe and healthy environment for the children. The increased space will also provide broader benefits. The soup kitchen will be able to run more regularly; HIV/Aids counseling will be more private and job creation and skills training projects can be held there, possibly providing an income source for the crèche.

Other than the physical benefits this project will provide the crèche and the wider community; sustainability initiatives will also be undertaken. Training and development around educare practices, access to government and donor funding and income generation projects will all be set up and implemented.

A project committee has been established to represent the crèche, SASDI and donors. This committee will oversee and drive the implementation of the project. The project can be separated into three phases: Phase 1 includes building a solid structure aimed at getting the kids out of the mud and providing them with a safe, healthy environment that is conducive to a good pre-school education. Phase 2 will focus on developing and implementing a curriculum that will ensure the proper education and care of the children. Phase 3 includes developing and setting up income generation projects that will enable the crèche to fulfill its objectives, in a sustainable manner in the future. In order to attempt to improve the situation of the crèche as quickly as possible an interim solution will be adopted as part of Phase 1. Refurbished containers will be used as a semi-permanent crèche facility for the next 18 months to 2 years whilst fundraising for and construction of the permanent structure is completed.

Margaret’s Community Kitchen

The proposed initiative is the development of a Community Kitchen as part of the Mzamomhle Crèche Development. The SASDI Foundation will work in partnership with Margaret Ngaleka to help her establish a sustainable business and meet the pressing needs of her community. Margaret’s Kitchen will generate a sustainable income that will cover the running costs of the kitchen, as well as provide the staff with a regular salary. Profits from the kitchen will be re-invested in the further development and running of the crèche.

In this manner, Margaret will continue to support and nurture the well being of her community and the youth.

The Kitchen will be open to anyone that can afford to pay for a meal. It will also continue the excellent community service initiative established by Margaret, where HIV/AIDS affected people are supplied with a free healthy meal to facilitate the absorption of their anti-retroviral medication.

The kitchen will be built in three phases:

Phase 1
The crèche has an unused area at the back that will be converted into the restaurant. This way the restaurant will have a separate entrance and the children in the crèche will not be disturbed. A new kitchen will be added at the back to make it easier for the cook to sell food and interact with customers.

Phase 2
Once the kitchen has been set up, the area outside the kitchen will be paved and the necessary plumbing and construction will take place. I.e. wall and gate will be added for security purposes. A gazebo will provide shade and will be used to protect the seating area from any weather hazards.

Phase 3
General set up of kitchen (adding cupboards). The restaurant will be painted and necessary furniture will be placed. Once the Kitchen is set up, all the necessary stock will be bought and Margaret’s kitchen will be in business.

The Kitchen will be open for Breakfast and Lunch from Monday to Saturday. The menu items will initially start from Soups and bread, and once successful will sell plates consisting of a rice/bread, chicken and vegetables. Along with developing a good menu the idea is also to introduce community to low cost nutritional meals, including yogurt.

The most important strength of the kitchen initiative is that everyone in the area knows Margaret as a passionate community leader. Margaret has the people’s best interest at heart. Therefore, people will eat at her restaurant to support her cause knowing that the profits will be used to benefit the community. The locals would rather buy food made by her than anyone else due to the sincerity and compassion Margaret has for community development and upliftment.

A long-term goal – the health food industry is growing and as a result there will be increasing demand for foods such as yogurt, amasi, and other healthy alternatives. As Cape Town the number one tourist destination in Africa, the kitchen would also like to accommodate tourists. The Wallacedene Township is not currently a recognized tourist destination but this initiative will definitely attract foreign visitors and open the doors for many other business opportunities in the township.

SANS Educare

Imagine looking after 180 children on a daily basis from 6am-6pm in a dilapidated shack that is scorching in summer and freezing and wet in winter… Seem impossible? Well this is what Sandra Lucas, retired teacher of 20 years and Director of SANS Educare in Mfuleni, does with her flock of 0-6 year olds from the local community.

As mentioned, the shack is in a terrible condition and there is a shortage of everything from educational materials to mattresses. However, Sandra and her team of 9 provide care, a structured curriculum and meals to the children. There is a good Grade R class and the crèche offers Xhosa, Afrikaans and English.

SASDI is in the process of developing a new solid structure crèche for SANS Educare. It will be better insulated, more spacious and safer which will enable Sandra and her staff to teach better and the children to learn more effectively. A suitable piece of land has been identified and the funding required for this project is just over R1 million. We have some great Dutch partners in this venture: Stichting Mzamomhle, Wings of Support and Peter Postema, and are very excited about the new crèche.

Needs:

• Donations-in-kind: Mattresses, toys etc. (Please call for more details)
• Monetary contributions for the new crèche

Eluthandweni: Homes for AIDS Orphans

As Nelson Mandela said: “AIDS is no longer a disease, it is a human rights issue”. With over 1 million children orphaned by AIDS in South Africa, Eluthandweni Homes for AIDS Orphans has stepped up to try and make a difference in the lives of children through providing them with a home, education and some semblance of a family. This project was initiated by Dr Mamphela Ramphele; Eluthandweni is designed to be a residential, comprehensive child care facility for AIDS orphans that will be based in urban and rural areas throughout South Africa. These residential homes will each house up to six children and two live-in Carers who will be employed on full time basis. Eluthandweni gives these children a lower-middle class home environment as well as the opportunities and family that they would otherwise never have had. SASDI is partnering with Eluthandweni in the development of the first home in Nyanga, just outside of Cape Town.

Needs:

• Monetary contribution to go towards the first home in Nyanga
• Donations-in-kind of building materials

School 2011 Project

SASDI, in partnership with Carsten Gertz from Teenactiv, believe the quality of primary education is deteriorating in rural areas. The Department of Education itself acknowledges that ‘there is considerable evidence that quality of education in South African schools is worryingly low’.

We believe Education for Rural People is a strategic priority for South Africa in the fight to reduce extreme poverty, hunger and malnutrition, and illiteracy. Therefore, SASDI and Carsten Gertz would like to build a school of excellence that will help uplift impoverished communities.

Over a period of 2 years, the intention is to build a co-educational primary school for young learners of local communities, starting from Grade R to Grade 4. There will be a great focus in developing the children’s intellect to the best our abilities with world class educational play facilities and teachings. The children will develop higher levels of literacy in mathematics, languages, and sport.

Our vision is to be a non-fees paying school. Giving everyone an opportunity to educate their children and lead a better life. Learners that qualify from the school will be provided with the best possible education and facilities so that they will be able to hold their own in further education.

We believe that world class education will give local South Africans a chance to a better life for themselves and their families.