WESSA’s December Christmas Party for Shiyabazali

Above:
Mr Maphanga from Free Me KZN Wildlife in Howick dressed as Santa, and kids from Shiyas.


WESSA at Umgeni Valley Nature Reserve, Howick is proud to have been sponsored by the National Lottery Fund- an initiative that helps sponsor community groups and projects whose basis is to improve community health, education and the environment, to host an overnights camp visit and Christmas Party on the 19th to the 20th of December 2009 for the kids of Shiyabazali, an informal settlement which lies opposite the Old Dunlop Factory and above the Howick Falls.


The party was to comprise of 46 kids of which by the splendid support of the Howick community, 57 kids ended up being accommodated. A donation of R2791.79 was raised to buy them takkies of which Pep Sponsored for them on discount and also presents from the Howick Primary School and Bears Furniture Store in Howick.

How it went?
These kids were dazzled with their first time experience in the wild, despite the fact that they live right near the reserve. They were exceedingly excited, enjoyed themselves during the two days and took along with them a lot of fun and memorable moments.

The party was aimed at developing amongst these kids the spirit of team building, leadership, caring for each other and ‘the earth’, as most of these kids spend half their day in the nearby Howick town as Howick’s street kids, although most of them still are with both parents.

On behalf of the WESSA community, the excursion was meant to having Christmas party with the kids of Shiyas and embracing them in love, support, also instilling in them a sense of feeling accepted and having that extra bit of hope.


Why Shiyas?
Kids in Shiyabazali are part of a long existing and very poor informal settlement, of which most of them have never even had a birthday party. The community settlement is subject to a lot of health and socially related problems, besides it being in an unacceptable location and also amassed mostly by foreigners who have resided there for more than 20 years.

The party serves as part of many initiatives, the community of this blog, has started and is confidently willing to carry out further in other to help uplift communities such as these.

Perhaps it is enough reason to help a community such as Shiyas merely because they already fit life’s puzzle as an ethically and politicaly isolated concern.

Many thanks goes out from the WESSA Education Centre to everyone that helped make this party a success for Shiyas!!!

A Special Thanx To Sponsorship, Gifts & Donations

1. National Lottery Fund
2. Howick Pep Stores
3. Howick Primary School
4. Merrivale Spar - Rick Parau ( Manager)
5. Howick Travel
6. Wimpy- Nelson
7. Skippers- James Stiwey
8. DVD Deport- Nick and Jess
9. Clothing Junction- Thembinkosi Gumede
10. GnS Hardware
11. Smart Cellular & Sound- Sishabbir Ahmad
12. Ellerines- Lucky Mncobeni
13. Dr S Jagarnath- Vera Mhlongo Gwala
14. The Unlimited World- Earl Van Amsterdam
Zulfia Abbas
Sharlene Naidoo
Slindile Zondi
Lungi Zondi
Nishanna Harrilal
Nompilo
Chantel
15. Howick Police Station- Sihle Bhengu and L. M. Brawn
16. Bears Furniture Store
17. Mpilenhle Medical Centre
18. Dr Sja Shabalala
19. Howick Cellular- David Wood

Shiyabazali- Past and Current History

The Shiyabazali settlement lies perched high up at the cliff of the Umgeni gorge, between the magestic, well known Howick Falls and the Dunlop factory. It is built upon the old Howick dump site from which they harvest materials for their shacks for years.

The settlement comprises of an estimated 1500 dwellings. Most of these shacks were built from materials varying from planks, cardboard, plastic, newspaper, wire corrugated iron, tree stumps felled from nearby trees and much more from this dump. These people are being subjected to a lot of water pollution on the river that is currently their only source of water, besides two standby taps that no longer work properly, they are also facing waste disposal and latrine hazards.

The Howick falls forms part of the Kwa-Zulu Natal Midlands Tourist Route and is part of the Umgeni River, of which 7km of it falls within Umgeni Valley Nature Reserve,30km away from Pietermaritsburg, situated just outside Howick on the road to Karkloof and also in which the WESSA Environmental Education Centre is based.

The establishment of the settlement is a results of the 1980's labour unrest, which led to Sarmcol Industry to permitting it's workers to settle within the property. The settlement comprises of polulations of Zulu, Xhosa, Mpondo, the greatest population being the Sothos.

Shiyabazali has in the modern past been assisted only by service organisations such as NGO's, churches and clinics offering services for education, food, health and social support.

The falls has but received the title of “Tallest sewage falls” owing to the amount of pollution from contributors such as the Howick Waste Water Treatment Works, Fairfield Dairy and other inputs from storm water varying from pollution to storm water drainage from the Howick town and the surrounding townships; namely Mpophomeni and Sphumelele wich are continuously experiencing raw sewage leakages.

UMngeni River comprises of four pump stations between Midmar Dam and Howick Falls that for many years been pumping raw sewage into uMngeni River, on almost a daily basis, with responsible officials 'totally unaware'.

The Howick Waste Water Treatment Works is said to be, overworking its capacity and discarding almost five million litres of often partially treated sewage a day into the uMngeni River.


Residents of Shiyabazali are noted to be using the stream above the fall for domestic purposes such as, doing their washing and also by some, the river banks are used as a latrine.

The situation at Shiyabazali can be linked to many political, economical, social and ecological attributes in our country, but the purpose of this initiative is in the hope of those willing to buy into a challenge that purely affects everyone who has a heart of crafting change.

This blog will be targeting and forming a family of networks both inside and outside Howick,uniting into bringing a change into the lives of people in Shiyas and in any measure of way possible to lend a helping hand.


Below, some links to The Witness Newpaper articles on the Shiyas settlement, you need to go to the site below and type in Shiyabazali.


www.witness.co.za.Feed-http://www.witness.co.za

Howick’s Thokoza to be moved
30 Jul 2008
Thando Mgaga

Sold waste mountain
27 Nov 2008
Tim Lindsay-White