more issues for shack families

south africa has it's share of good weather but sitting on top of the mountains grabouw also has it's share of rain and when it rains it really rains, unfortunately with the rain and change of season comes the wind...

...many of the people in grabouw don't have the secure brick built structures and tiled roofs, in fact thousands of people live in little more than small sheds made from broken pallets, tin sheets and old pieces of wood..

...on tuesday night the wind blew and blew and when i went to run the soccer outreach in iraq (a local squatter camp, where many of the seasonal apple pickers and their families live and not just for the picking season but that is where they have built their family homes!) three of the 'tin shacks' had had their roof's/tin sheets/plastic sheeting ripped off and the local church (also a tin/wooden structure) was providing a home to the women and children who were affected.

spare a thought for these families who have now got to rebuild not only their roof's but also their lives as many of their possessions were damaged by water, what with the heavy rains that also swept through the settlement.

photo shows three of the boys who attend my soccer outreach standing outside one of their homes which lost it's roof.

new beginnings

last friday we had the great pleasure of helping a local family move from their wooden home into their newly built government brick home. the family, a mum, dad and a 17 year old son who helps arron with his soccer outreach in rooidakke, had lived in this one bed wooden home, which they rented, for the last 10 years.....it took just two loads on my bakkie and small trailer to move their entire home, beds, plastic chair, clothes etc...they were joined in their new 2 bed home by an uncle who we collected from a nearby farm, he had lived in his home for 59 years, he had a simple bed, mattress and a couple of chairs.

it was a real privilege to see the mum take the first steps in her new home, and as we moved her belongings from the car she washed her hands in the sink, just a single cold water tap, for the first time. the home is a simple single story build, open plan lounge/kitchen, two bedrooms and a room with a toilet and shower, the 'kitchen' is just a single sink in the corner of the room, no cupboards or worktop...no tiles in 'kitchen area' or shower, just bear concrete and concrete floors......at present the home doesn't have electricity, and no plugs have been installed.....the walls are single brick which will be so cold in winter but....

....saying all that the family are so happy to have a place of their own, the water is on a meter and they will pay rates and rent like the rest of us......3,000 other homes are planned for grabouw over the next few years...lets pray that we will be able to help many more people as they move from tin shacks to brick homes and that the poverty that we see day in day out will be broken by further schemes like work programmes to get these people into employment so they can keep their homes as new as the day they moved in.

p.s as you will see from the photo these homes aren't really built for people the size of arron!