NPO invites volunteers to building initiative

During the BuildForMadiba Season, volunteers will have the opportunity to participate in the transformative experience of creating safe spaces for people to live in. This involvement is lifechanging for beneficiaries and the participants.

Johannesburg - Global NPO Habitat for Humanity is inviting sponsors and volunteers to participate in its 2022 #BuildForMadiba season.

Hosted in partnership with the Nelson Mandela Foundation, the event is held annually during Mandela Month from 18 to 22 July.

Supported by the Department of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation, volunteers will work alongside communities to build housing as part of a worldwide effort to eliminate shelter poverty.

Habitat for Humanity SA interim executive director Cyrus Watuku says special focus will be given to rebuilding homes damaged or destroyed during the flooding in KwaZulu-Natal in April.

“In the short term we aim to restore the most critical basic necessities and dignity of those affected, while in the longer term we will be working on restoring or replacing the damaged houses. Adequate and affordable housing is an important component of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and an essential driver for achieving many of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Housing is a basic human need and having a safe, decent and sustainable house is the first step on the ladder out of poverty for lowincome families,” Watuku says.

During the upcoming #BuildForMadiba Season, volunteers will have the opportunity to participate in the transformative experience of creating safe spaces for people to live in.

This involvement is often described as life-changing for both beneficiaries and participants.

“This is social responsibility in action, offering volunteers the opportunity to understand and participate in community development from the ground up,” Watuku says.

Habitat for Humanity SA chairperson

Kgotla Bantsi says access to affordable housing ly addresses the fundamental human need for shelter, and also addresses other important human needs such as dignity and hope.

“Our build events play a significant role in contributing towards the fulfilment of these life-enhancing needs. They also contribute to enhancing social cohesion in the communities we work with,” Bantsi says.

The #BuildForMadiba Season offers an important way for volunteers from various backgrounds to participate in the experience of building homes and interacting directly with low-income beneficiaries and the broader community. In particular, it provides a transformational team-building opportunity for corporates, enabling teams to engage with homeowners and their communities, and forge lasting relationships.

Up to 10 volunteers are allocated to each site per day and up to 50 people from a sponsor company can volunteer for the programme. The foundations are laid prior to the start of the season, and over the five-day period volunteers work with qualified construction personnel to put basic structures into place, building the external and interior walls up to the roof plate. Construction of each house takes four to six weeks from site clearing to occupation, and each family receives a 40m2 house with two bedrooms and a lounge, kitchen and bathroom.

Corporate sponsorships are intended to cover the full cost of construction, including the #BuildForMadiba experience for up to 50 employees per site; skills development and employment for local community members. Crew leaders and logistics personnel are recruited from the community to assist with various tasks throughout the week.

For more visit the site https://habitat.org.za/buildformadiba.

Student internship programme opens

Johannesburg - Global management company Kearney has called on final year university students to apply for its 2023 internship programme.

Over the course of the one-year programme, selected candidates will gain consulting experience in an office environment based at Kearney’s Johannesburg office and have the opportunity to study a Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration part-time at the Gordon Institute of Business Science.

In a statement Kearney said it invites candidates currently in their final year of study within various leading industry sectors such as financial services, communications, media and digital technology, energy and process industries, and strategic and transformation operations in all engineering sectors.

Kearney Africa managing director Theo Sibiya said the internship programme is at the core of enabling positive outcomes.

“Growing careers we are proud of how this has brought change over the last couple of years,” he said.

Applications for the 2023 programme are now open until 20 August 2022.

For more visit the Kearney site.

CBD gunmen arrested

Johannesburg - On Sunday police arrested three suspects aged between 20 and 28 for possession of unlicensed firearms and ammunition at the Wanderers taxi rank in Wanderers Street in the CBD.

Police spokesperson Captain Xoli Mbele said police on patrol noticed three suspicious men changing direction when seeing the police.

“They searched them and recovered three unlicensed firearms and ammunition. The firearms are subjected to ballistic testing to ascertain if they were used in committing serious and violent crimes and investigation is underway,” Mbele said.

Johannesburg Central station commander Brigadier Perumal commended the work done by the police.

“He urged them to intensify search operations to curb proliferation of unlicensed firearms,” Mbele said.