The Homestead- SASDI's current project
Since 1982, The Homestead (Projects for Street Children) has been helping street children in Cape Town reconstruct their shattered lives. This amazing organisation has helped thousands of street children over the years, with many wonderful success stories. The Homestead’s main area of operations has always been Cape Town’s CBD, the location of most children living on the streets. In recent years, the Homestead has been bridging the gap between the streets and the community by establishing a home for street children in Khayelitsha. The building of the Child & Youth Care Centre has been many years in the making. SASDI was approached to help in the fundraising drive and project management of the build. In January 2012, the building finally started on this exciting project!
Khayelitsha is the largest township in Cape Town. It is home to the poorest community – poor financially, poor in education and poor in spirit. Only 4.3% of adults in Khayelitsha have a post-matric diploma or qualification. The 50% unemployment rate is dire in itself but made more serious in that most of those employed have only elementary jobs, earning below minimum wage. Most households have a shared income of about R2000 which has to support four or more people, with many households reliant on social support grants for survival. It is estimated that there are now about a million people living in Khayelitsha.
Given the state of this community, it is unsurprising then that any urban upgrade project in the area is a significant contribution to improving the physical condition of the community as well as the lives of its residents.
What is even more special about the Homestead’s Child and Youth Care Centre is the following:
• It is located in one of the poorest areas of Khayelitsha, Site B.
• It is a large, flagship centre incorporating a Community Hall so that the surrounding community can benefit from and participate in the Centre.
• It is addressing a major local problem in that 40% of street children in Cape Town originate from Khayelitsha. It is only fit that they return home to their community if it is impossible for them to return to their family home.
• The Centre will provide residential housing for 75 street children in the process of rehabilitation and reintegration into society.
• The building will be beautiful, capable of fitting in to any wealthy, urban area and bringing light to this poor community.
• The beneficiaries include the street children housed at the centre; street children reintegrated into foster families or their biological families and receiving counselling and psychosocial support at the centre; the Homestead staff; local Khayelitsha community members employed as local labour on the building site; local Khayelitsha community members and NGOs who will benefit from the community hall; other street children, drug abusers and people in need of intervention will be helped at the Early Intervention Centre on site.
• The project will shine light on children forgotten and abandoned by society. Street children are seen as a nuisance, not only by individual citizens in Cape Town but also by its government. It is significant that this R12 million project is R1,5 million away from its fundraising target with no money as yet committed by the City of Cape Town. These children are very misunderstood and this project will give hope to street children and shine light on the issue.
How Can I Contribute?
An amount of R1,5 million is still needed to complete this amazing project. Ways in which you can contribute to the building include:
1. Become a Supporting Sponsor – a donation of R1,5 million will give you naming rights to one of the three cottages to house the Homestead beneficiaries.
2. Become a Metre Maker – each square metre of the project costs R3,552. As a metre maker, each R3,552 donated to the project buys us another square metre.
3. Volunteer Teams – A volunteer team contributes R75,000 to the project and then sends a team of employees to participate in the actual building on site. No experience is necessary and this offers companies a wonderful team building exercise to boost employee morale while contributing to a great cause!
Upcoming volunteer team builds include First National Bank and British American Tobacco.
4. Donations in kind – Donate building materials, safety equipment or painting supplies to our build! All donation in kind are tax deductible and thanks are included in our monthly newsletters.
5. Buy a Brick – For every R10 donated, we can buy another brick!