TCD TRUST - A study visit of projects in Cape Town's townships

For all intense and purposes, to most of us, the idea of visiting our townships is filled with the notion of depression and despair. Thanks to a study visit of TCD Trust’s (www.tcdtrust.org.za ) community development projects it only took stepping through the welcoming door of inspirational individuals to make you realise that our townships are fill of joy, hope, positivity and above all a sense of community. Propel Africa is already involved in some of TCD Trust’s projects and this site visit of some of their new projects inspired us even more in all the good work that we can do in the townships of Cape Town.

Bronwen Wetton (TCD Trust manager) & Rosalia Mashale

The next Bafana Bafana Striker – already sponsored by Addidas

The first port of call this morning was to Baphumelele (www.baphumelele.org.za ) in Khyelitsha to visit Rosalia Mashale or “Mama Rosie” and her extended family. Mama Rosie together with other women in the community started off with taking in a hand full of abandoned / orphaned children and now has a family of 87 plus children ranging from 0 – 18 years of age. She clothes, feeds, educates and provides a safe home for all these children – a huge undertaking in itself but she did not stop there. With continued support from the community and those NGO’s like TCD Trust she has managed to build an Educare Centre (looking after 200 plus children per day), a Respite Care Centre for individuals recovering from TB (here they receive temporary housing, medical care, nutritious meals and counselling before returning home) and a Woodwork shop (teaching hands on skills to unemployed members of the community while attempting to generate extra funds for the centre). Witnessing the upbeat, energised attitude of Mama Rosie and her staff a visitor can not help but be inspired and impressed.

Mama Rosie in her Wendy House kitchen

We then when on to visit the next TCD Trust beneficiary at Rosie’s Soup Kitchen. From a small wooden Wendy house in the heart of Masassar Khyaelitsha, another “Mama Rosie” serves a hot bowl of porridge to children on their way to school every day and a hot bowl of soup in the afternoon to any person in need. She is celebrating 21 years of community service this year and while the number of mouths fed on a daily bases has had to be reduced from plus 200 to only 80 –120 per day due to a cut in funding, she continues to do the best that she can with the little she manages to put together. TCD Trust has helped Rosie build a solid kitchen structure and has funded equipment for the kitchen.

Blomvlei Library

Our last visit was to the newly built Blomvlei Library located on the grounds of Blomvlei Primary School in Hanover Park. The long term goal of this project is to provide a safe centre open to the community in which continued education courses / works shops will be run together with access to the library for all the surrounding school children of the community. It’s shocking to hear that up to 70% of our local schools do not have libraries. Unemployment, poverty, drugs and gang related violence are only some of the challenges the children of this community face on a daily bases and the development of this library is providing a positive space to learn and develop skills in an attempt to uplift the community from it’s current position.