Friday, October 9, 2009

Volunteer House Build, 8 October 2009









Captions from left to right: the Intaprop team, one of the Metropolitan Health Group teams, the house handover team of Khuthaza.
We have always thought that giving was about money, but giving time and our hands proved to be as equally satisfying. We learned brick laying, something we thought we could never do. Metropolitan Health Group, Team 2.
We thank and appreciate Mellon for having given us the opportunity to do the final touches on the house to be handed over today. The excitement was overwhelming, the spirit within that house was glorious and we could not stop singing celebration songs. We’ve learned a lot and we saw the excitement that goes through the family. It’s all but satisfying to the soul. Thank you from the house hand over team – Stunky, Thabile, Zodwa, Yvonne, Mirriam and Priscilla from Khutaza.

I’ve always wanted to be part of building a house, so for my 45th birthday present I asked my partner to support me to free up the time from our busy lives so I cold volunteer for a day or a weekend.
I’ve just had a wonderfully satisfying day of hard physical labour, slowly become more adept at handling a trowel and feel humbled at the thought that some people do this every day of their lives. How inspiring to be part of turning 40m2 of bare earth into decent housing for a family who told me they’ve been in their shack since 1994. I’ll most definitely be back! Lee Randall, Occupational Therapist..

No comments:

Post a Comment