By Ian Corbett | Project Leader
Coming out of lockdown the last obstacles to starting to build Lonwabo Special Care Day Centre finally seemed to be falling away. In the the last quarter of 2020 real progress with building the new centre seemed possible after months of delay due to the Covid-19 lockdown.
Tough times continued at Lonwabo. Permission to reopen after closure for the lockdown took a long time to to come. Finally in October Thandeka was given the green light to restart. BUT a strict new carer to child ratio of 1:3 was imposed. Lonwabo's capacity had fallen from 33 to 12 in one year. By the end of the year, only 8 children had returned.
For Starting Chance, restarting created the possibility of resuming training of the team, but with everyone fatigued there seemed little point. We decided to wait until the New Year, and focused on working out what equipment would be required to open the new centre instead.
The phone rang in October - it was Silvester. A long-standing community leader in Mfuleni, Silvester was concerned. As the chair of the neighbouring Primary School's Governing Body, he was calling to let me know that hundreds of metres of their security fence had just been stolen over night. But what came next was worse - land grabs had resumed. He and other community members were concerned that if they invaded the land we were buying, there would be little chance of ever clearing it again.
Suddenly we needed to act fast. I called the fencing contractor and met him on site. We inspected the area of fencing that had been stolen - we would need a more secure type. The steel price had gone up 25% and further increases were expected. I had to act now to secure the price or it would be too late. I called Silvester - although he wanted to help us, he was heavily committed at work. We needed someone who could work with him. Victor, husband of one of the principal's whom we supported, came to mind. Another long-standing community member, he knew everyone in the Ward. He agreed to help. We needed a strong local committee. Victor spoke with Silvester - within a week we had Derrick and Bashin, respected members of the community, on the team. Land grabs were continuing, shacks were being erected within 200m of the open plot of land we were racing to secure. The committee were concerned. They advised that "if three shacks are erected you will never get it back. You will need 24 hour security to make sure it is safe."
My heart sank. We had budgetted for onsite security for the duration of the build. But that was 3 perhaps 4 months away. This was going to hit our funds.
Ideally this was an opportunity to employ suitably qualified locals - but it was also a risk. Violence had flared up, it could be dangerous. We decided on a compromise - a local professional security company could cover the night and weekend patrols. A community patroller would be onsite during the week. Victor found Moses, a qualified patroller living close to the site.
Plans were needed for minor works approval to get the fence in. Gapp Architects, our partner, were under pressure as year-end aproached. We needed more resources. Su and her team came to the rescue. Specialising in plan submission, they were ideally placed to assist. Aware of the pressure we were under, Su agreed to keep the costs to a minimum. As soon as we had secured the price with a deposit, RICTS set about producing drawings to assist Su's team. It was all go.
Fortunately for me, Donovan had offered to assist with project management. An experienced supply chain specialist and construction manager, he soon got to work on site. Plans were in place and we were off. Fencing was ordered, retaining walls built and before we knew it, the padlcocks were being fitted to the sliding gates across the front of the property.
Then came news from the transferring attorney - we would need to settle "escalation" charged by the City of Cape Town before transfer to Starting Chance could be completed - unbelievably they had stuck to the purchase contract, and we were to be charged escalation for the delay in transfer caused by the Covid-19 lockdown. In total they had added R77 000 to the purchase price. Left with no alternative but to use our precious construction funds we settled the outstanding amount. It was a bitter blow as we now have to go out to raise those funds once more in order to be able to complete Phase 1. On the positive side, registration of transfer is now officially complete - the land is finally ours.
Several online meetings later, all of the reamining issues had been ironed out. Sean released the plans for a final pre-submission check. At quarter past four on Chrismas Eve Penelope submitted the plans for Lonwabo. It had been a massive effort to pull it off.
Now, our next goal is to make sure that we receive planning approval in time for RICTS to move onsite in the last week of February. If we can achieve this, we aim to be able to open Lonwabo by the end of April 2021.
Moses is doing a great job patrolling the site and making sure that it is kept clean.
We had more great news during the last quarter of 2020 when Bregal Milestone made a second, larger donation towards the project which meant that we could take the decision to pay the deposit for construction to RICTS - this secured the price and, if all goes well, will see completion of phase 1 and the delivery of the new Lonwabo Centre with 3 classrooms early in 2Q 2021.
Our "Secret Santa" drive to raise funds towards equipping Lonwabo has just raised another R18 000. We still have some way to go, but with your help and support we are getting there.
Let's hope that in my next report I will be able to include pictures of the new centre going up! That will surely be something to celebrate!
Thank you to all those who have helped us get this far. We hope with further support Thandeka's dream will soon become a reality and the children of Lonwabo will have the flying start they so badly need and deserve! After all, they are some of South Africa's most vulnerable children.
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
