Major projects
My aim is always to fund and support community projects that will enhance the lives of people, provide income and eventually become self-sustaining. The main areas of work to date are:
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Projects overviewEight ladies, all unemployed, were selected from the community to start a chicken project. The land was chosen, cleared, and levelled by the ladies, and then a very stylish chicken house was built by the Hillcrest Aids Centre. The purpose of this project is to allow all the families involved to receive eggs, a good source of protein for them, and for the surplus to be sold thus creating a small business for the ladies. Thirty chickens moved into their new abode recently. If this project is successful, we will duplicate it next year, in another area.
In 2013 an ambitious carpentry project was begun. Modelled on the Men's Shed concept, so popular in Australia, the aim of this project is to teach new skills to unemployed people, which will hopefully enable them to set up their own businesses. A qualified teacher with the name of Talent, is being paid for the next 6 months to teach small groups of men and women the fundamentals of both carpentry and welding. The first group of learners have already sold items in the community, and received orders for more. They are making, toys to sell at crèches, as well as benches, shoe racks, coat hangers, burglar guards for windows, stands for stoves, and gates. Once again, if this project proves to be successful it will be ongoing. There is a demand amongst the community for photos to be taken to mark important events, such as the birth of a baby, a school graduation, or even sadly a funeral. None of these people have access to a camera, and there have been many instances of people dying and there being no record of their life. This is particularly poignant when families lose a child. Each year I take photos of the people I work with and distribute them, and I realized how much joy it brought them and how important it was to them. So this year I purchased a digital camera and gave it to a woman living in the community. She is to become a community photographer. She will take photos when requested, get hard copies of them, and then sell them, making a small profit. |