Volunteers provide homes for families

INLSA

PROUD HOMEOWNER: Ntombiyona Ndwalane has good reason to smile  her brand-new home is going up behind her, built by volunteer builders from St Augustines Hospital.

The humble mud shack that 62-year-old grandmother Ntombiyona Ndwalane called home had finally had its day.

The one-room rondavel which had no water, electricity or windows flooded every time there was a heavy rainfall, and the corrugated iron roof was ripped off in howling winds.

Eventually, the shack in Danganya, uMgababa, on the South Coast, became so uninhabitable that Ndwalane, her son Sbusiso and two of his children who lived there had to move in with a nearby relative.

But now life is about to dramatically change for Ndwalane: she is about to move into a brand-new home that boasts a lounge, two bedrooms, a kitchen and a bathroom with a bath and basin.

Valued at R89 000, it has been provided – and built – by volunteers from the staff of Netcare’s St Augustine’s Hospital, who have been busy this week humping building blocks down the hilly terrain, mixing cement and laying roof tiles.

Four other homes have gone up in the area, built by staff from other KZN hospitals, as well as Netcare 911, Medicross, Prime Cure and National Renal Care.

PROUD HOMEOWNER: Ntombiyona Ndwalane stands before her soon-to-be brand-new home, built by volunteer builders from St Augustines Hospital.

INLSA

A total of 500 nurses, midwives, technicians, pharmacists and managers swopped their day jobs to turn builders for a week to provide decent housing for five families who had been living in dire conditions.

St Augustine’s midwife Sharon Dercksen, who usually delivers babies, was occupied delivering 70kg wheelbarrow loads of bricks to the site on Wednesday.

“I am thoroughly enjoying it, though,” she said.

The annual project, part of a national programme, is carried out in collaboration with Habitat for Humanity, which identifies the beneficiary families. Construction company WBHO donates funds, and professional builders are then on hand to supervise the build.

Mdu Luthuli of Habitat for Humanity said Ndwalane’s shack was one of the worst homes he had ever seen.

The 45m2 Habitat for Humanity homes are bigger than the government’s 40m2 RDP houses and provide more rooms.

The plan is to build 1 000 such homes in two wards in the Umgababa area this year.

Big companies finance the homes as part of their corporate social responsibility programmes, but Habitat for Humanity was always looking for new corporates to join the project to enable more homes to be built, Luthuli said.

As for Ndwalane, she is thrilled. “I am very excited. I never thought I would live in a house like this,” she beamed.