Western Cape Human Settlements Minister Bonginkosi Madikizela will hand over certificates to 39 beneficiaries of the 2083 unit Pelikan Park housing development in Cape Town tomorrow, as part of a Habitat for Humanity event commemorating World Habitat Day.
The 39 beneficiaries are all recent graduates of the Habitat for Humanity social facilitation program, which prepares the beneficiaries for home ownership. When complete, all 2083 beneficiaries are expected to graduate.
The event also represents the end of a weeklong Habitat for Humanity build, in which volunteers have worked closely with the community to build houses for 14 of the deserving beneficiaries.
In 1986, The United Nations General Assembly declared the first Monday in October to be World Habitat Day. This is a time to recognize the basic need for adequate shelter in a world where it is lacking for so many, and is a day of grassroots action to advocate for universal decent housing. The event will connect the Western Cape with the global Habitat family across 80 countries worldwide, raising awareness, educating and mobilizing individuals and communities to take action on the current global housing crisis.
There is a need for public-private partnerships in the provision of housing solutions, and the department does not have the resources to cater for the housing need alone. There are currently over 500 00 households on the Western Cape housing list, and the Department is allocated funding from the national government to build 12 341 houses and 6 912 sites in the 2013/14 financial year. It is with this view that the partnerships that support service delivery, such as the one at Pelikan Park, are embraced
The department has provided funding for the Pelikan Park project, and Habitat for Humanity, along with the developer, Power Construction, have been acting as social facilitators and working closely with the community, empowering and up-skilling them to bring about the change they themselves want to see.
This social facilitation includes fostering community cohesion amongst the target homeowner markets, facilitating capacity building and home owner training with the beneficiaries specifically in the free subsidised housing community, looking at the beneficiary livelihoods and conducting livelihoods assessments to see how their livelihoods strategies can be supported through skills training.
All media are invited:
Date: 11 October 2013
Time: 11h00
Place: 14 Avenue, Pelikan Park, Cape Town.
Directions:
Take the N2 out of Cape Town. Take the M17 (Jan Smuts Drive) South. Jan Smuts will merge onto New Strandfontein Road. Cross Klip road and 5th Avenue and you will see 14 Avenue on your right.
For media enquiries:
Bruce Oom, Spokesman for Minister Bonginkosi Madikizela,
Cell: 072 4655 177
Tel: 021 483 6622
Fax: 021 483 3888
E-mail: Bruce.Oom@westerncape.gov.za
