It was a Sunday evening on March 12, 2017 when I was listening to radio and I heard that 3 500 homes were destroyed by a fire in Imizamo Yethu, Mandela Park, Hout Bay. The fire left 15 000 homeless and 9 people lost their lives. On that same evening #HoutBayFire started trending throughout social media platforms. I then began to ask myself a question, what is it that I could do that can bring about change to the community of Imizamo Yethu? What small contribution can I bring that will assist the affected families?
Imizamo Yethu (SiXhosa word, meaning "Our Efforts"), is an informal settlement in the greater Hout Bay. The informal settlement is home to a total of 33 600 people. The living condition, even before the fire disaster, was one tap of water and a single toilet (bucket system) would be shared by 120 families. The settlement does not have a proper sewerage system in place. The Disa River, which runs through this settlement, has the highest level of e-coli bacteria that has ever been recorded in South Africa.
I then decided to start and launch a campaign for the affected families whereby I would collect everything possible from clothing to canned food to blankets to stationary. On the same night, I wrote a brief message which I circulated throughout social media platforms asking the community of CPUT to donate anything and everything possible that was in a good condition and user friendly. Before I knew it, the campaign was born.
The community of CPUT (students and staff) gradually started showing an interest in the drive and donations grew each day. Since this project began, various platforms were used to create awareness of the situation at Hout Bay, including but not only limited to radio interviews at CPUT UniFM, Bush Radio and Radio Zibonele, social media and campus visits.
We tried to make this campaign as big as possible by also reaching out to the community of Khayelitsha and departments such as CPUT Student Counselling, CPUT HIV/AIDS Unit and the Media Department of the CPUT Student Affairs.
The idea behind involving the community of Khayelitsha, was to make the campaign bigger than it had already turned out to be and to get the greater community of Cape Town to support this intiative. Unfortunately, our main base of support turned out to be solely CPUT. With Khayelitsha, we had intended to use the Lingelethu Police station, as a centre whereby the community of Khayelitsha, would be able to drop off their donations however we were turned down by the station commander saying that using the station as a drop off centre is not safe. The police working at the station and the community members who use the station might steal the donations and not reach the intended families.
We then continued with the donation and being fully operational at Cape Town, Mowbray and Bellville campus whereby we able to collect clothing, school uniform, shoes, textbooks, stationary, toiletries, blankets, bags, glasses, cups, two boxes filled with sanitary pads (18x18x24), duvets and food with a joint total estimate of over R 10 000.
The donations were handed over to the community of Hout Bay on Monday, May 8, 2017 by me and Amanda Malgas on behalf of CPUT. We were welcomed by the local community leader of Izimazo Yethu, Garry and the community which is currently leaving on the sport fields where the majority of people have been placed. Other victims are temporarily housed in community halls and some are staying with relatives. This includes school going children and varsity students. The families that are the sports groud we visited are currently placed in what look like a small single room (each family) from our local residences with only one window. They are surrounded by police and there is an ambulance on standby.
CHALLENGES FACED:
Two major challenges we faced throughout the campaign were people who were willing contribute towards the donation because they heard us on radio but where residing outside of Cape Town and were not willing on coming to Cape Town just to drop off the goods they wish to donate. Since we were operating on a zero budget campaign we had to cover the costs of travelling around promoting the campaign as well as transporting the collected goods from residences to campus where they were kept.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
This campaign would have not been a success without the assistance of Amanda Malgas, who is the current LSRC Projects &Development Officer at the Mowbray campus. Amanda, went out of her way to ensure she contributes as much as she can in creating awareness of the campaign and coordinating it at the campus.
Thank you to Siziphiwe Dlulane for her contribution towards the campaign.
Thank you to the Advancement Department which is filled with friendly staff members who are always eager to assist. Without their assistance we would have not had transport to take the collected goods to the fire victims. Thank you to Mr. Maseko, who took time to review and edit my donation appeal letter.
Thank you to the Peer Helpers of the Cape Town Student Counselling department which made a generous contribution towards the drive by donating goods they had collected in the previous year.
Thank you to CPUT UniFm for interviewing us live and allowing us to reach out to the greater community of CPUT.
Thank you to Mbasa Gqokoma and Mkhuseli Veto from Bush Radio for interviewing us on their show and allowing us to reach a greater audience within the Cape Town area. The feedback was wonderful. Furthermore, thank you to the team for taking time to write about this drive on their BlogSpot (http://morningcruise.blogspot.co.za/2017/03/cput-students-siziphiwe-and.html)
Our ever friendly staff of the CPUT Media Department, thank you for willing to assist once more on this project Thank you for featuring our poster on both on-campus digital screens and on the CPUT Student Affairs, Facebook page which has 16,331 likes.
Thank you to Ilse Fredericks for the beautiful work that she did by writing an article about the drive which featured on the CPUT website (http://www.cput.ac.za/newsroom/news/article/3310/students-start-drive-in-aid-of-fire-victims)
Thank you to the CPUT HIV/AIDS Unit that welcomed us into their and contributed where they could.
Not forgetting CPUT Staff members, Musa Gulu and Melani Hara who allowed their offices to be used as on campus drop-off sites.
NOT FORGETTING the major people who made this donation a success, the students and staff members of CPUT. Without you, this vision would have not become a reality.
In the words of one of the fire victims: “May God richly bless you! What you did was really mindful. We are now like crippling babies learning how to walk. Thank you so much for assisting us
Indeed like Anne Frank, once said: No one has ever become poor by giving! Below are some of the pictures we could take on the day of the handing over. WE HAD SO MANY GOODS THAT NOT ALL OF THEM COULD FIT INTO THE CAR AND AS A RESULT SOME HAD TO BE LEFT BEHIND. The left over collection has since increased as more students have come forward to donate and this too shall be taken to Hout Bay soon.
