Community Projects

Previous Next It was in late 2008 when I was first introduced to Mama Winnie, a Xhosa Gogo (Grandmother) by Mr. Pandla, a one time member of uMkhonto we Sizwe, “The Spear of the Nation”, the armed wing of the liberation struggle and at that stage a guide at the really good Red Location museum. This was a wonderful project founded by and brought to fruition as a collaboration between the Swedish and South African governments and co-funded by both these countries. It was a museum that was built to commemorate, the contribution made by the people, particularly the people from Red Location in New Brighton, a township in Port Elizabeth and therefore the people of Port Elizabeth as a whole, in their struggle to end Apartheid in South Africa. Unfortunately, the imposing, modern structure now lies in ruin the result of members of the local community who became disgruntled with municipal service delivery and the state funded housing they were benefitting from and they proceeded to close the area and museum down. What a pity, the museum brought hard won jobs to the community, as well as much needed tourism funds that began to trickle into the area. So instead of...

Farm school near Port Elizabeth Previous Next This is a school that was established on farm land on the western outskirts of Port Elizabeth. When I first visited the school early in 2008 with Jeremy and Jo Stattersfield with son Ned from Dover in England, they came away with what is best described as shock at the conditions that the twenty six pupils of all ages were subject to. Without saying a word and about a year later I again was contacted by the family. Ned and friends had raised in excess of R3500.00 from selling cakes and holding raffles in the street. A further R8 500.00 was raised by the family and a total of R12 000.00 transferred to me where we contracted an local builder to upgrade their disfunctional toilets and other facilities. Facilities that in 2009 now had to cater for almost four times the number of learners as in 2008 at 110 pupils. Further to this Jeremy and family put together a huge parcel and at great trouble and frustration sent this parcel with a lap top commputer over for the school to make use of. Two full teams of football jerseys and a football with pump were...

Masidunde youngsters after beach clean upBeach clean up Cape Recife Previous Next Another community project that Alan Tours has become involved with is an organisation called Masifunde Learning 4 you. An organization based in Germany that attracts volunteers from around the world to come out to help the poor and under-privilaged learners, primarily in the townships where these learners are exposed to learning projects to help nuture life and learning skills and thereby improving their ability to qualify themselves for a more productive life. We assist with nature based projects such as beach and township clean-ups. Game drives to introduce the kids to the attractions of the natural world, a world most of them know so very little about. We introduce them to the concept of a clean environment and why it is important to keep it clean. We look at the huge wealth of plants that their very own ancestors used to keep their ancient clans healthy and free of disease. The children who show the most enthusiasm in the projects are rewarded when we take them on game drives or further afield to one of the Big 5 reserves that occur on the outskirts of Port Elizabeth. The competion to...