Enkanini February 2017

InSite's seventh year in Enkanini. Yondela Tyana has been our local connection and friend for the past five years. His office is our connection point and is located as you walk up the main street in the settlement.

The InSite team was composed of 23 students from the Amsterdam International Community School, and 9 adults. InSite staff and volunteers.

Our work composed of building stairs and gutters for a large high foot traffic area, installing vertical gardens made of plastic bottles in 6 homes, a huge mosaic welcome sign composed of all recycled material and providing paint and extra cement for families in need.

In the afternoon, the students arranged games in teams and played with over 300 children each day. They spent time preparing and practicing the games before arriving and learned about the importance of play in the overall development of children.

Next Steps in Enkanini

Enkanini is an informal settlement on the edge of Stellenbosch, South Africa. The government provides taps for water near toilets - there are 5 installations of these to cover over 8000 families

Philips, The Philips Foundation, InSite and the community of Enkanini have created South Africa's first bakery in an informal settlement.

The Zabuya Bakery in Enkanini, close to Kaymandi (Stellenbosch), is solar powered, built with sustainable materials and insulated with local natural products. Run by members of the local community, the bakery will serve as a community center called the Enkanini Transformation Center. In addition, four solar-powered street lights that will light up the only playground in the settlement extends the "daylight" into the night. The installation, building and running of the business is all locally sourced.

The center and the bakery will be open and ready for business in the fall of 2017. Philips provided the funding and solar lighting. InSite has partnered with this community since 2011. It is the first time Philips has sponsored streetlights in a community in the whole African continent.

This will be a great asset to the community as it will add safety at night and extend the daylight for local businesses and students who need to study.

Yondela received funding from a group of the InSite volunteer staff to purchase a place in Enkanini where he can use as a center point for the community. He has a vision for job training, safe place for youth, and small business development and educational support.

InSite Interns

Becky Maragh interned with InSite this year. As part of her internship, she stayed in South Africa from February until the end of April. While she was in South Africa, she was able to connected more closely with the students in Enkanini. She and Ari Snow, who was spending his third year internship year from the Royal Academy of the Arts in South Africa, developed art curriculum for the local high school. Working alongside the art teacher from Kaymandi High School, they implemented an afterschool art class for many of the talented youth who live in Kaymandi and Enkanini.

Becky also finished the mosaic sign (image at the end of this report) and with a group of local students, decorated in mosaics the steps and concrete paths InSite built in previous years.

Lethabong 2017

This was InSite's fourth visit to this Informal Settlement. It is located in Pretoria, South Africa. There are about 2500 people who live here. They have water dropped off in huge water tanks 2 times/week, although water is supposed to be delivered everyday. They also have 2 huge street lights for safety and trash pick up in designated areas. There is a clinic which has one doctor. There is no plumbing, electricity and limited trash pick up.

Rosemary Hill

Rosemary Hill is a local farm which runs a wedding venue, restaurant, mountain bike trails and boarding school and much more, employees many people from this settlement and also helps provide food for a feeding scheme in Lethabong that feeds about 150 children every day.

InSite stays at Rosemary Hill while working in this informal settlement. Cindy, featured in this picture runs the feeding scheme with a few other mama's. She also helps us coordinate the work projects in making sure we are helping those with the greatest need.

The InSite team did work projects in the morning and the students implemented the afterschool play activities for the children in the afternoon for about 2 hours/day.

Work projects

We built a playground made out of all reusable items like old tires, palettes, wood beams and left over concrete slabs. The area was land where former homes were located. The local government has relocated hundreds of residents to a new area, leaving large open spaces. We aren't sure how long this playground will be here, but at least it's a nice place for the children to play.

We bought a premade structure for the future home of the Lethabong Community Center. Cindy is negotiating for a piece of land so that this structure can be assembled and a center can be built. The aim is to have classes, tutoring and other services for the residents of Lethabong.

We assembled and taught five mama's how to make vertical gardens for their homes. These gardens will serve as a feeding source for the family as well as a means of selling the extra food that is grown. They also have the ability to teach others how to assemble these gardens. They are designed for those who do not have a lot of plantable land, or the elderly who are not able to work the land.

We fixed some roofs of some elderly residents and painted about 10 homes.

InSite's other activities while in South Africa

In addition to working in the local communities, InSite does provide opportunities for the students to experience some of what South Africa has to offer in terms of nature and culture.

The image here is of the Enkanini team at the top of Lion's head, a hike which takes you to the top of a beautiful mountain with a view of Cape Town. Students also spend time in the local cities, go on hikes and of course, have some time to purchase souvenirs.

A Great Adventure, is a team building business that InSite partners with for our camping weekend. This takes place the first weekend which helps prepare the students for the week.

The students are guided through a weekend of challenges, and are faced with many obstacles and learn what it means to be a team and to do more, and be more than they thought they could. It brings together the months of leadership training and team building and climaxes into a weekend of WOW moments. By the time we begin our week on Monday morning, we are mentally, emotionally and physically ready to work.

InSite Funds

All the students fundraise €1600, as well as the adult volunteer staff. The InSite staff's expenses are part of the budget as they help administrate and run the program year round. The Enkanini Team was 37 people and the Pretoria Team was 30 people. As InSite had 2 trips this year, the collective funding from both teams were combined and allocated as needed.

The overall budget for InSite 2017 was €55.000. This was the combined effort of all the students and staff. pifworld.com was used as our fundraising platform where the majority of the funds were contributed. Stichting Reckoning pays an annual fee for the services of this platform, so there are no administration fees of pifworld taken out of the donations.

The flight costs are not included in this graph as that expense is about half of what the students raise and the breakdown of the other half is what needs more explanation. As you can see, our project costs were much lower this year. This is an attempt to do projects that have a greater long term impact. Since we have developed good strong relationships, we are now able to work more closely with both communities and design projects together. This creates more ownership and enthusiasm which leads to more confidence and lasting change.

InSite SA: An extension for greater impact

InSite SA is a new non-profit, and NPO in South Africa. The aim is to increase the agency of those living in disadvantaged communities with job training and education. Yondela Tyawa and Phillipine Pia as the Directors. Yondela is the director of the Cape Town area and Phillipine is the director of the Pretoria area.

With the birth of Kabuya Bakery in Enkanini, along with the Enkanini Transformation Center, and the upcoming Lethabong Community Center, it was a natural step to have these leaders step into positions of leadership that give them the platform needed to further empower others.

Over the next year, InSite SA will seek to establish ways to increase the opportunities for better jobs, and a more fulfilling life for those living in disadvantaged communities.