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EDITOR: BETTIE GILIOMEE
SHIPPING CONTAINERS BRING HOPE
Homes for Vastrap
Desiree Tee hangs out her washing in front of her new home. PHOTO: WERNER HILLS
REPORTER
T
HE Ford Struandale Engine Plant has transformed the lives of 10 families from the Vastrap informal settlement in Booysen Park, Port Elizabeth, with the installation of shipping containers converted into safe and secure housing units. Five containers were completely renovated, converted and subdivided to provide houses for
10 destitute families, the sick and the elderly. A sixth unit was also prepared as a multi-purpose facility for community meetings, classroom for the children and a skills development centre. The containers were installed in December, and gave the new residents a formal dwelling in the so-called ‘Blue Village’. This represented a life-changing upgrade from the dilapidated make-shift shacks they previously called home. Apart from the housing units, the team from the Struandale Engine Plant also installed two
mobile toilets, providing essential ablutions in an area that has to make do without basic services such as sanitation. A handful of communal taps service the thousands of people living in the informal settlement. The new containers joined the five existing units that were installed in 2014 as part of Ford’s annual Global Week of Caring. This gave the first 10 families a safe, comfortable and weatherproof environment that guaranteed dramatically improved living conditions - particularly in the cold and wet winter months.
“We have had an incredible response and support from around the world for the Vastrap container housing project that we started in 2014, and are delighted to launch this second phase that makes it possible to accommodate and improve the living conditions of 20 families in total,” said Hyron Muniz, Production Manager at the Ford Struandale Engine Plant and the project lead. Continued on page 3