Patiswa Bangani is a recipient of one such beautifully refurbished container in Delft. The container, which sticks out in stark contrast against a backdrop of rickety shacks, piles of rubbish and a general air of poverty, will be used as an educare centre for children aged two to five years living in that area. Bangani has never been happier.
For the past 12 years, Bangani has nurtured, fed and cared for the children in her community. Inviting them in from the street, she provided a nutritious meal and a place of shelter and security. Feeding sometimes more than 80 children at a time, her wooden shack, which already housed her husband and three children, soon became too small for her growing brood. The three containers, which arrived refurbished and equipped with an ablution facility and two classrooms, were an answer to her prayers.
"We buy sturdy, watertight containers at a low cost and transform them into mobile structures, which we can use to feed, educate or as a clinic. Our projects try to establish a level of self-sustainability within the community," projects officer for Breadline Africa, Edna Titus said.
The disused shipping containers are renovated and used as community kitchens to serve food to the very poor, daycare centres for children, libraries and media centres in schools, sports club changing rooms, health clinics, ablution blocks and educare centres. This year alone, more than nine containers have been placed in areas affected by extreme poverty in the Western Cape. Each container, which costs between R50 000 and R90 000 to convert and renovate, is funded through corporates and individual donors who are mostly based in the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands. This year, due to the increasingly difficult fund-raising climate, the trustees raised more than R500 000, which will assist with the placement of 10 containers.
"The portable, versatile and secure recycled containers are a lifeline to many struggling communities, where they provide instant and vital infrastructure," Titus said.
A core focus of Breadline Africa, aside from its highly successful container project initiative, is to provide grass-roots community organisations, which survive on limited budgets, with funding to continue their vital work. Organisations that have benefited from Breadline Africa include Clowns Without Borders, an artist-led humanitarian organisation dedicated to improving the psychosocial condition of children and communities in areas of crisis through laughter and play, the Philani Child
Health and Nutrition Project, and the Rural Development Support Programme.
During the past year, Breadline Africa was able to assist thousands of people across southern Africa. The organisation, which supports young people in three focus areas: health, education, and sports, arts and culture, believes that children and young people hold the future of southern Africa in their
hands.
"Our aim is to break the cycle of poverty, by helping communities to help themselves," director of Breadline Africa, Tim Smith said. "We find sensible, sustainable long-term solutions to problems created by poverty and support projects that make a permanent difference in the lives of people affected by extreme poverty."
The tough economic environment has had an impact on the NGO sector and Breadline Africa has found fund-raising increasingly challenging. "We have had to shift our fund-raising model, which relied on donor funds from the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands, and are actively seeking support from grant-giving trusts, individuals, corporates and government sources in South Africa," Smith said.
Despite the tough economic times, Breadline Africa remains optimistic on what lies ahead; "We are proud of our record of keeping the costs of managing and disbursing grants low; less than 10% of our funds are used on overheads, monitoring and evaluation. And while we are committed to maintaining extremely low overheads in order to provide donors with value for their investment, we monitor both the work and impact of all organisations that receive funding and receive regular progress reports," Smith said.
