Uncategorized – Page 5 – We Are Durban

Mandela day

September 2, 2014/in Company events, Uncategorized/by We Are Durban

This year’s Mandela day we decided to partner with a nonprofit Christian organisation called iCare. Their aim is to create a meaningful and sustainable solution for the street children of Durban through awareness programs, rehabilitation, shelters and skills creation. Each day during the week they have about 20 children come to the centre for food, showers and clean clothing as well as games, sport and educational programmes.

On Mandela day however their schedule changed dramatically. They were met by the staff from Duromed who were busy preparing an amazing breakfast of scrambled egg, bacon, tomato and bread rolls. The children came in and showered before being served this delicious treat which really got the day off to a great start.

Together with the VUM staff we then split the children into four groups, and engaged with them in an interactive activity called city mapping. City mapping was a drawing exercise which was meant to show/inform us where the kids spend most of their time. With VUM staff asking the kids to draw Durban as they see it, they were asked to draw their safest place, favourite place, worst or most dangerous place etc. The end results revealed some interesting points beside their obvious love for soccer and the beach. It also revealed their fear of metro and the police who often round them up in the vans and drop them off in far places as far as even Stanger. iCare have their own social workers who try to reintegrate these children with their families but I think this exercise was appreciated by the children because it gave them a voice, even if it was just for 67minutes.

We were fortunate to have an amazing bunch of volunteers who then led the kids in some fun and games. Activities such as balloon popping, hoola hoop catchers, blind folded mime game and the sellotape game amongst others.

While the kids were busy with their city mapping and games there were some hard working volunteers who became carpenters for the day. They sanded and stained the wooden staircase in the hall as an additional blessing to the iCare group. They managed to do 99% of the work but with time restraint had to come back to the following week to complete it but its now finished and it is looking great.

In the afternoon we all gathered outside where Velocity had prepared a braai for lunch. Everyone from the iCare staff, the kids as well as the volunteers sat outside to share in this amazing feast which ended off an amazing day.

iCare has responded with comments of gratitude, informing us on how they had such a great experience that day and especially how the kids loved it. It was such a privilege and honor to serve that Organisation and those children.

Warrior Race 2014

July 30, 2014/in Company events, Uncategorized/by We Are Durban

26^th July 2014 Holla Trails Ballito

We are Durban teamed up with Soldiers of God to compete in the Warrior Challenge to raise funds and awareness for Khulani Children’s Shelter in Park Hill, Durban.

The 2014 Warrior Challenge was held at Holler trails Ballito, on the 26^th of July. It’s an adventure race that has 3 different levels and plenty of muddy obstacles to overcome.

The Khulani’s Children Shelter was established to provide a place of safety for orphans & abused and abandoned children in the North Durban area, children who have different obstacles to climb. Children are placed at the shelter by state welfare departments and the SAPS. The facility is currently registered to provide accommodation for 12 children between the ages of 8 and 16 (although no child is turned away).

The day of the Race was a bit chilly, 1000’s of people where there, +/- 909 teams entered and +/- 4100 individuals took part in the Challenge, but 11 of these teams had more than just a race as their drive/motivation for entering the competition. We had teams such as The Epic Shrooms, Yshuldweclimbit, Team ARB, #Arewethereyet, Team Ripped, Meat wagon, Gun Runner, Wandaful UTI, The Avengers, We didn’t think this through, and Ooohimunfits.

These amazing warrior kings and warrior queens tackled the obstacles and overcame them; they got soaked in mud, ran, and climbed up steep banks of sand. They were freezing cold, sore, batted and bruised in the end but all felt a sense of pride and achievement.

Here are a few stories from the Soldiers who partook;

“I have done this race before last year 2013; before the race began I was feeling excitement with some serious nervous tension in the air. After the race! Buggered, sore, Cold and waiting for the cramp to set in. My main motivation for doing the race or finishing it was the kids from Khulani who are facing serious obstacles (my warrior obstacles look insignificant to what the Orphans have to face). Knowing we can make a difference to their precious little lives motivated me to finish the race. Would I absolutely do this again next year? Well doing this race was all about supporting Khulani’s underprivileged, and I feel funny enough sad that we just really don’t do enough for causes such as Khulani. I just wish I had arrange an outing for these kids to have come and watched, to have been apart, to have been inspired by what we did by overcoming obstacles of a physical nature and to show them that they too can have strength to overcome any adversity/ obstacle they are faced with and most importantly to know that true happiness is through Jesus Christ!!!!” ~ Keith Chelin from Team Ripped

“This was a first for me, afterwards I felt Elated, but pretty sore. The camaraderie within our little team was brilliant too. I did it to help to get pledges toward the Khulani Childrens’ Shelter, and also as a personal challenge to myself. I probably won’t do it next year. My upper body strength is just not there anymore, and I think I’m too old for this sort of challenge (only physically, hey J)

I believe in the star-fish principal, and that everyone just needs to do a little in their personal capacity, to make BIG changes. I have always had a heart for the underprivileged, and did a lot of work in this vein whilst living in Swaziland, where funding is non-existing for projects for widows, orphans, the disabled, etc. I don’t necessarily need to see the end result; I only need to trust in the organization that I KNOW for sure to be putting the money where it is needed.”

~ Kathy Hughes from Epic Shrooms

Those are just a few stories of the experiences of the many great men and women who for the sake of making a difference in more than just their own lives but in the lives of the children from Khulani’s As well, took on the challenge. This is how together we can make Durban a better place for all.

We are Durban would like to thank all you warriors who fought and pushed boundaries to make a difference in the lives of Children who are less privileged like the kids from Khulani, A particularly special thanks to Keith Chelin for being the driver of this campaign, SOLDIERS OF GOD, It’s been a great privileged to have you inspire many to take part in this challenge and witnessing your heart on this has given many inspiration.

Annual Youth Day Beach Event

June 30, 2014/in Company events, Uncategorized/by We Are Durban

Pirates Beach Saturday 28^th June 2014

This was our biggest beach day event yet with almost 250 children and volunteers joining us for the morning. Although the rain was teasing it thankfully stayed away and we were blessed with the perfect weather for the kids to run around and play.

This year we had children from Operation Bobbi Bear, Khulani Children’s Home and Molweni Community Centre and so because of the increased numbers we had Volunteers running 10 game stations across the beach and twenty teams with volunteers taking them from one station to the next.

We were very fortunate to have a number of sponsors come on board, such as CheckSave who donated t-shirts for the volunteers, peaks for the children and then a juice, yoghurt, chips, ruler, apple, orange and banana for the lunch packs. KFC also very kindly donated a piece of chicken to add to each lunch pack as well. Holomatrix supplied a wrist band for each child’s safety and team marking and Aquelle had flavoured waters on the beach while the children were playing. Another non profit organisation called Volunteer You also joined us and together with Pirates Lifesaving club they were able to offer a number of staff and some invaluable assistance.

It was a long morning of hard work for all the volunteers but it was exceptionally rewarding seeing the smiles on the children’s faces as they ran around on the beach. As always this event wouldn’t have been possible if it weren’t for the generous time, love and patience given by each and every one of the volunteers, and so we extend a very special Thank You to all who made this day possible!

Whoonga Park – Linda’s opinion

June 18, 2014/in Uncategorized/by We Are Durban

Okay, it’s been a long time coming. Many people have asked for my opinion to Botha/Albert/Qalakabushka/”whoonga” Park , what’s going on there, what is being done, what is the solution… (For ease of reference, I’m going to continue throughout this article referring it to Qalakabushka instead of all the possible options). So here is as much as I can say. All I am saying is from my research and dealings in the park, dealings with authorities, and every bit of what I am saying is my opinion. I have been in the park a number of times and been chased out with a mob following after us too. I have also been part of many, many meetings with the Municipality trying to figure outSo I do have some first hand experience.

Let’s start with the drug itself. Whoonga. This is not an entirely new drug, but came to be known in 2010. It is also known as “Sugars” but it taken in a different way. It is fairly localised in this form and is only common in Durban. Whoonga is sold in “straws” and in Qalakabushka a person can get the straws for R20, whereas in the townships and outlying areas, it can be as high as R80. Hence, the flocking into one area for the drug. The drug itself is third grade heroin mixed with strychnine. There are rumours of it containing ARV’s but no samples tested have actually been proven to contain them. This is South Africa, however, and if there is a rumour about something someone is going to try act on it – so this rumour in itself is dangerous. The contents of the straw is then usually mixed with dagga or tobacco and smoked. The effect of the drug? Well, heroin is the most potent painkiller known to man, and causes and enhanced sense of euphoria followed by drowsiness and mental clouding for several hours. Once the effects wear off the person starts withdrawal which can include the following; restlessness, aches and pains, diarrhoea, vomiting, and insomnia. Tolerance to heroin develops quickly and soon one straw is not enough. In the park there are some people taking about 8 straws a hit, 3 times a day (yes, that is R480 needed a day to sustain the high)! Then there is the strychnine element – probably the most evil thing to add to something that is going into a person. My guess is that the heroin is actually saving most the people from this killing them. 30mg is a lethal dose! The strychnine itself causes many of the symptoms we are seeing in Qalakabushka; agitation, apprehension or fear, restlessness, and painful muscles spasms. The combination of the strychnine and the heroin withdrawal, results in the person doing anything, by any means, to get their next fix.

Not all the people who take Whoonga are homeless – many land up that way but probably only 200 people sleep in the park. By the end of the day that 200 has swelled to about 2000 people! This creates a volatile situation. 2000 people who have cloudy mental processing or are agitated, restless and in withdrawal are a big problem. Small issues can become big problems in seconds, which is an understandable concern for those non-addicts who live, work and study in the area.

Demographics of the people – in a study done last year 95% of the people interviewed were South African. Of course, if you are an illegal foreign national, you are not sticking around to be interviewed, but the beauty of this finding is that the municipality has a responsibility to the residents of South Africa, so they are trying to do something.

Possible solutions? Bear in mind that we are dealing with people addicted to a substance that changes the way they behave. In my experience, this group of people is the most difficult category of people to work with for a number of reasons.

Firstly, an addict needs to want to be rehabilitated
The cost of rehabilitation is astronomical
Withdrawal pains are so intense (and last about 4 days – ladies think constant labour pain for 4 days, with no relief)
The addict has normally burnt their bridges with any healthy support system they have and therefore their support system is a bunch of addicts

So bear this in mind as we chat through some solutions – I’m going to list solutions people have thrown at me over time and chat them through afterwards;

Do a raid an charge the people for loitering
Round up everyone and put them somewhere where they cannot impact on Durban
Put them into rehab and reintegrate them back into society
Remove the Druglord
A multi-pronged approach

Option 1: Raid and charge. Municipality tried this last year. So the first thing that happens with a raid, is people run and hide. Sadly where the problem initially was isolated to a section of Albert Park it has spread to the railway lines and Botha Park. The next problem is that we don’t have enough holding cells in Durban for that many people. As a reseult in a short space of time everyone is let out with a rap on the knuckles and a warning – essentially showing everyone that there is a flaw in the system… even though it’s a temporary answer it creates more of a widespread problem and the people are back on the streets within a day.

Option 2: Round up. Though this is appealing and seems humane as the people will have housing, it does not deal with why they come to Qalakabushka. They come there for cheap drugs. So even if the accommodation is sorted out, the people would head into town daily for their “fix” and as mentioned previously a large proportion of those who attend the Park daily actually don’t sleep in the park.

Option 3: Rehabilitate and reintegrate. This was also attempted. The only government facility we have available is Newlands park which has a small number of beds. They have a large waiting list of people who want to attend the rehab, and when there is a round up these people have to wait longer. In the trial round up and forced rehab attempt, only a handful stuck it out through detox, the rest absconded causing a lot of damage in their wake.

Option 4: Remove the dealer. This would seem obvious and it is one of the routes Municipality is pursuing. There seems to be 2 problems though. Recently the cops tried to arrest a dealer, a mob of addicts attacked the police and then tried to kill a man they believed to be the informant (he may not have been the informant just the unlucky person the mob picked – so it may put innocent people in danger). The second is that there is a huge demand for the drug, if one supplier is removed I would guess a new one would rise to fill the demand fairly quickly.

Option 5: Multi-pronged approach. This is one, We are Durban is working on at the moment in conjunction with the Municipality and would be a long term solution to all vulnerable people in the city, but it will not help everyone, as not everyone will want to go. It is aimed at being a voluntary programme where people can get shelter for a month while attending a psychosocial centre during the day to receive lifeskills training, adult education, visit a clinic, browse the internet, clean their clothes and attend a gym or dancing/art class etc. The people on this programme will also have access to the Job opportunities centre to give them a hope of a future. Although I personally see this is one of the best solutions, sadly we are dealing with a group of people who are not wanting help on the large part. Obviously given the choice between enter the system or be put in prison most would choose the system, but not all would last to the end.

So in conclusion, things may seem a bit bleak. I want to commend the municipality on the amount of thought and effort they are going through to try and solve this problem. (If you haven’t picked up from above they have been trying things, but also they have been engaging every sector and department in trying to find a good solution.) I truly believe it is our biggest struggle as Durbanites at the moment and it is something we as Durbanites need to team together to see a solution to. I personally don’t think the rampage we saw the other week will be the last of the violence that will occur either from the addicts themselves or those “fed-up” with the addicts, because there is fear in people. Fear reduces us to the basest of people and we are seeing that around the park. I want to finish on this one thought that if we as humans can’t do something about this, we are going to have to rely on God to solve this for us. I think that it is time that we all get on our knees and pray to the God that we serve to intervene in the situation, that the addicts would have an encounter with Him and would then have the strength to change and walk away from the prison they have created for themselves.

Fulton Matric Dance Preparation

March 5, 2014/in Company events, Uncategorized/by We Are Durban

It all started when a Durban company was Nek nominated and asked for our help with some suggested projects. One that really touched our hearts was for the Matrics of Fulton School for the deaf. These are really special children that have struggled to overcome a challenge that most of us couldn’t dream of. Most of us have fond memories of our Matric dance. We remember all the preparations we went through and the excitement, but for some of the kids, the dress, shoes, and jewelry were a challenge as they did not know where the answer would come from.

The company chose not to use the suggestion so We are Durban took on the challenge, gathering formal dresses, purchasing shoes and jewelry to fit out the girls beautifully. On Friday, 28 February, we had a fun tea break with the girls where they had a chance to “shop” for whatever they needed to have a magical night at their dance. Their dance is later in March and we look forward to supplying a makeup artist to finish off the experience of being special, inside and out.

Thank you to all you ladies in Durban who gave your special dresses for the project.

Love Stinks

February 18, 2014/in Company events, Uncategorized/by We Are Durban

On the 15 February 2014, we endeavored to install 10 long drop toilets at a small rural primary school within the eThekwini area.

Nyuswa Primary School is based in KwaNyuswa in the Botha’s Hill area. This school of 126 learners suffers a peculiar problem in that it has very low water pressure most days. Some days, more often than not, they have no water. This poses a huge problem as toilets overflow – not great for the health of the kids or the cleaning staff!

We are Durban were donated 10 pit latrine toilets from Hungerford Schroeder Organisation and together with volunteers a wonderfully dignifying event was born. The event actually started on Thursday morning when a TLB (a big tractor with a digging arm) dug the holes in which the pit liners for the toilets would be sunk. This machine dominated the soil and definitely lessened the load for the volunteers. The Friday afternoon all the top structure materials were delivered to the school and locked away safely in waiting for Saturday.

Bright on the sunny Saturday morning most volunteers met at Hillcrest Aids Centre Trust to drive in convoy to the school. Upon arrival at the school; sunscreen was applied, hats were fitted and tools were thrown over shoulders. Coffee and muffins (and later yummy sandwiches and juice) were supplied by Nic Goodall and brought broad smiles to many faces. The 43 volunteers were divided into 7 teams, which were lead by various men of stature! A little icebreaker involving sellotape and little space between each other was done to get the nerves of new friends out of the way. Apparently Corné van Rooyen’s team won the race to finish the roll of sellotape…they say they complied with rules…?

We then moved to the room where the top structure parts were kept, for a quick explanation of how to assemble a pit latrine toilet. Not many questions were asked as people were keen to start building their toilets! And so it started. Barrie Knox-Davies and company were first to get their pit liner in the ground, but quickly learnt that they had riveted the back wall of the top structure, up side down. They learnt to remove rivets with a skrew-driver very quickly. Gavin Leask and company made the same mistake but reckoned that the extra holes in the wall would help with ventilation. Pieter-Paul van den Heever and company had an argument with a tree root, in the end man won!!! Tammy Addis, Tory Joubert and the ladies from Jabulani Project were excellent shovellers, filling the holes around the pit liners. Although there will be sore backs, blistered hands and fibreglass in everything, we all left feeling very proud of our 10 new toilets and convinced that Nyuswa Primary School will be able to complete their academic syllabus in time.

Thank you everyone for getting involved – you made a meaningful contribution to the upliftment of those less fortunate than ourselves.

ID book day

January 27, 2014/in Company events, Uncategorized/by We Are Durban

Probably our most challenging event yet – but the results were fantastic!

On Friday, 24 January 2014, we set out to help 150 homeless people through the process of receiving their South African ID books. We had been approached by a feeding scheme in Durban called the Healing and Restoration centre to help them with 100 ID books. Last year a group of 30 cyclists rode the Amashova cycle classic to raise the funds for this project. We decided to offer another 50 slots to another feeding scheme to help their people.

iTrump kindly offered their venue, and Home Affairs agreed to send their people. Craig Mannheim from Unprecedented Photography was our photographer on the day. We had about 30 volunteers come in to assist on the day – which was essential for the programme to happen. Thank you to all of you for being so incredible!

Besides doing the ID books of those who attended the day, we wanted to create a day that would make a new beginning in the lives of the people attending the event. So we arranged showers, new clothes, toiletries, a shave and haircut for the men and a touch of makeup for the ladies. All were treated to a hot lunch donated by Catering@Ridgeside. The difference in the people was remarkable. They arrived looking like your typical street person and left looking like beautiful citizens of our lovely country.

We were sadly not able to assist every person who came as their ID numbers had to be submitted prior to the day so that they could be put through the Home Affairs computer system to ensure they were correct. 104 names were submitted to us, but many of those did not know their ID numbers. Over 60 people were processed. A follow up day will be set up to fingerprint those who did not know their ID numbers so that their ID numbers can be located. Once they know their numbers we will complete the process of getting them their books.

A big thank you for those of you who stayed longer than intended, you went over and above what you signed up for and tried everything possible to make things happen. We really appreciate you and your efforts. You certainly made a difference in the lives of those attended the day.

They say that the greater the challenge is to accomplish something the greater the reward when it is complete. I think it applies here.

Photos of the day will follow shortly.

Nivea – Burlington CV project

December 20, 2013/in Uncategorized/by We Are Durban

A small team of 6 ladies from Nivea have impacted over 60 families in the Burlington community by simply giving up 4 hours of their time to care! The group met at a community hall inside the Burlington township on Wednesday 11^th December with their laptops charged and their enthusiasm evident. They were greeted by about 20 eager females seated and waiting for an opportunity to have their CV’s drawn up by the Nivea team, and then a constant stream of others filtering in for the next few hours.

Ishmael from the Nkosinathi Project (based at the Denis Hurley Centre) in the CBD joined us for the morning and gave the group a quick introduction to the importance of CV’s, the “do’s” and “don’ts” for your CV. He also covered the interview process and the importance of being professional and punctural. The Nivea team in the meantime were setting up in the front of the hall. When Ishmael was finished it was the Nivea Teams’ time to shine and sat down one-on-one with each community member to write up their personal CV. Each lady sat with 5-10 people throughout the day and then rest of the people were able to manually complete a questionnaire so that their CV could be drawn up for them.

In total 60 people (on the dot) were helped in the end and will each be given 5 copies of their CV next week when we return to the community. On top of this their CV’s are being uploaded onto the eThekwini opportunities database and submitted to the Jump Start programme which could result in work at Mr Price, and Spar locally. So we are holding thumbs that a few people will be recruited through this channel. More importantly though each member will now have a CV that they can take out for their own personal job hunt. This might sound simple but just earlier this year there was a company who had advertised 50 positions in the area but due to no one having CV’s not a single person from Burlington was hired.

With this project we are hoping to give people a fighting chance to succeed and all it took was some ink, paper and a bit of love and patience!

Derivco – Musawenkhosi ECD Centre painting

December 20, 2013/in Uncategorized/by We Are Durban

A very big thanks to the team from Derivco that decided that instead of going quad-biking for their teambuild they wanted to do something of value for the community.

Last year we had a number of big storms lash the Durban area and one of the places affected was a little Early Childhood development in Inanda which had two of its walls collapse. The school teachers contacted We are Durban earlier this year to find out if we could help in any way. With the help of various volunteers we have done a complete makeover of the building. A recreated facility has been finished now thanks to Derivco who painted the building a sunny yellow.

Musawenkhosi facilitates the education and care of 46 children from the community under the age of 6. The children’s parents pay R100/m for their little ones to be there from 6am -4pm. Previously the building leaked like a sieve as it was a really old wattle and daub building. Thanks to people in Durban who gave of their time and talents, these children have a lovely a safe environment to be nurtured in.

A big THANK YOU to the team from Derivco for the effort you put in.

Durban Business Fair 2013

December 13, 2013/in Company events, Uncategorized/by We Are Durban

For the second year running, we took a stand at the Durban Business Fair and this year proved to be an exciting three days. We are Durban has access to so many incredible projects and organisations that are in desperate need of either financial aid, time or input from corporates and small businesses and this was the perfect opportunity to try bridge that gap.

We had a competition running for the three days where companies could fill in a brief questionnaire in order to go into the draw to win a free teambuilding CSI project. Strathmore won the day with us, and are planning to take up their prize in the form of a veggie garden programme in January 2014. We tried to encourage the decision makers within companies to get more involved in some sort of social upliftment whether through contributing financially or by bringing their staff to come and help out for a day. We managed to get exposure for our organization as well as many others, to hundreds of companies over the three day period.

Hillcrest Aids Centre kindly lent us their beautiful beadwork to decorate our stand in line with our corporate identity. We also used videos and photographs of our events and projects to highlight the types of endeavors we are involved in. A couple of students and volunteers came through to man the stand with the We are Durban staff and board members and all in all it was a great opportunity to network and gain exposure for our organisation as a whole.