Eyethu Hout Bay Skate Park

The Eyethu Skatepark, a community-led initiative, supported by Rotary Club of Hout Bay, took over 4 years to come to fruition, after the Eyethu Hout Bay Skatepark Project co-founder, Matthew Johnson, posted on Facebook the need for a community skatepark in the area. Rotary Club of Hout Bay was at the time looking for a new project to support and pursued the community call for a much-needed safe, recreational space for local skaters to call home.

 

Eyethu is a Nguni word meaning “our”. It is also an affirmation of shared ownership or partnership.

 

The skate park is at the new Hout Bay Sports Ground and aims to help create a truly public space for both community use and to promote youth development. A space needed where people can share and experience common interests. A new South African Space. A safe space for all, from all walks of life.

 

The site is located at the confluence point of three different demographic areas in the centre of Hout Bay, providing an opportunity for integration through the creation of a new South African space where people can share and experience common interests through skating and other sporting activities.

 

The state-of-the-art skate park is generous in size, at 950 sqm, and took over 6 months to build and cost R1,5 million, raised through a crowdfunding campaign, a golf day, grass-root fundraising and the generous contributions from various Rotary Clubs. The largest part of the donation came from Coca-Cola Peninsula Beverages.

Operation Fire-Stop

On 11 March 2017, a large fire ravaged through the Imizamo Yethu informal settlement in Hout Bay, South Africa, killing four people. A total of 2194 informal dwellings were destroyed, and over 9700 people were displaced.

 

Through the generosity of other Rotary clubs and a few private donors, the Rotary Club of Hout Bay established a fire relief fund to target medium to long term fire relief. HBVEMS (Hout Bay Volunteer EMS) was identified as being in the position to assist us in training for the unique requirements of our communities through their EFAR platform.

 

They coordinate the training of basic Fire Fighting, and other emergency training on an ongoing basis allowing for a minimum of 60 community members to be trained per year as well as a “train-the-trainer” programme to ensure ongoing sustainability. The investment by Rotary Club of Hout Bay in this initiative will go a long way to ensuring that the devastation caused by recent fires is not repeated in the future.

 

HBVEMS coordinate and make available to local communities professional training to enable them to not only prevent and contain fires within their communities, but also to deal with resultant burns and trauma pending medical intervention. Whilst training is presented by an accredited external provider, HBVEMS are responsible for the logistics of the training.

Main Road Clinic – Coolamon Rotary Club

Rotary Club of Hout Bay is actively involved with the Main Road Clinic, having helped build the clinic over 15 years ago. This critical project in Hout Bay was also funded with the help of our partner club Coolamon Rotary Club in Australia.

Ambulance

Many years ago, Rotary Club of Hout Bay organized a fundraising drive to purchase HBVEMS their first ambulance. We also raised funds for and donated a heart monitor and defibrillator for the Hout Bay Volunteer Emergency Services.

 

We facilitated a donated ultra-sonic scanner (thanks to a Dutch sponsor) to be located in Victoria Hospital, replacing a 20-year old machine. Wheelchairs are provided for a number of needy patients in Hangberg or Imizamo Yethu.

Rotary Family Health Days

For the third year, Rotary Club of Hout Bay held Rotary Family Health Days in October 2019. The 2019 venue was the Sports Ground in Hout Bay and across the one day we had 600 visitors, mainly from the local communities of Hangberg and Imizamo Yethu.

 

This was an opportunity for health workers, as well as Hout Bay based organisations to provide a range of free health services to all members of the community – e.g. HIV/AIDS testing, drug-counseling, vaccinations, basic health check-ups, eyesight tests referrals, etc. The most popular service by far was eye testing. We partnered with Jonga Trust to set up an eye testing station for all three days.

 

The eye testing was quick and efficient, and everyone tested got a clear answer on what was needed. Unfortunately, Rotary Family Health Days were unable to be held in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid. Rotary Club of Hout Bay plans to relaunch this important initiative when Covid restrictions are lifted.

Nonceba Family Counselling Centre

Ashley Kaimowitz, a Rotary Exchange student, was tragically killed by a drunk driver in Cape Town. The Rotary Clubs of Hout Bay, Sea Point, Kirstenbosch and Claremont established a memorial fund. The fund was to complete a dream Ashley had, to build a centre in Khayelitsha for the counselling of raped and abused children. Ashley’s Dream came true and The Nonceba Family Counselling Centre was completed.

 

The Nonceba Family Counselling Centre started in 1997 as a two-room consulting practice run by volunteers from the community when they became aware of extent of the child abuse. Private Individuals, companies and Rotary rallied to support this community initiative.

 

The challenge of an over-burdened police force and an under-resourced state welfare system, resulted in delays in responding to the high number of child abuse and domestic violence cases in the area.

 

The ability to respond quickly and appropriately is essential in stabilising survivors and supporting the healing process. The Nonceba Family Counselling Centre was born from this need for immediate and appropriate intervention.

 

For more information please visit: https://nonceba.org/background/

Caring Hands of Hangberg Feeding Scheme

We support Caring Hands in Hangberg to provide a hot meal to between 60 to 100 + street children twice a week. Occasionally the kids get a treat like a sucker, chips or an Easter egg at Easter.

 

Maniefah and Pam have been feeding the community for many years so they know the children and make sure that those who need it get enough for other family members.

 

Maniefah and Pam do not judge, they just feed, support and care for their community. With the help of generous donations, these children are now guaranteed a hot meal at least twice a week. A meal and a hug.

Rotary Christmas Events

Each year the Rotary Club of Hout Bay plans parties, goodie bags, and special meals for:

Covid 19 Reaction Task Team

A dedicated Covid 19 Reaction Task Team of five started on 12 April 2020 to secure funds, develop systems and identify areas of focus. Limited resources required limiting areas of focus so we concentrated on our Rotary youth clubs, bursary students, traditional beneficiaries, fellow Rotarians and families.

 

A call for financial assistance was put out to our members on 21st April which together with R10,000-00 from district realized an amount of R326,116-85.

Our project officially shut down at the end of October 2020. Over the 5 ½ months, we spent R325,708-47;

– Fed 278 people in over 50 families every two weeks {assuming each R500 voucher feeds a family of 4 for two weeks, this equals +/- 40,026 meals over the course of the project}.
– Supplied 300 KN95 masks to the Main Road Clinic.
– Supplied 1,392 washable masks to our beneficiaries and their families.
– Supplied several 5 lt. bottles of Sanitizer.
– Supplied 12 no-touch thermometers to 10 crèches, Main Road Clinic & the HB Fire station.
– Supplied 50 disposable masks to our HB Fire Station for use in their trauma unit.