5FM DJ Kim Schulze laying bricks for Habitat for Humanity SA
Sixteen of the station’s on-air personalities were in the Mother City this weekend for a jam-packed weekend in the "5FM Takeover Weekend Promotion". On Saturday the 10th of March, listeners recruited as part of 5FM’s Youngblood5 on-air campaign were in Mfuleni to volunteer their time alongside 5FM DJ’s to build 5 Habitat houses.
Early morning registration took place at UCT campus before the listeners were bussed into the township to arrive just after 10:00 a.m. After a brief welcome and the required safety briefing from the Habitat crew, the volunteers were divided into the five groups before being led out to their build sites by their Crew Leaders.
Habitat’s policy of working alongside the beneficiary ensures that that all beneficiaries perform 60 hours of "sweat equity", physically working on other people’s houses as part of giving back to the community.
A Habitat house normally takes five days to build but as the volunteers were only able to be out on site for one day, Habitat arranged for each of the five houses to be in different stages of construction thereby giving the volunteers the opportunity to experience the art of mixing dugha (mortar), passing and laying of blocks, bagging walls and erecting the roof to name just a few!
Despite the hot weather and the hard work at hand, the volunteers were joined mid-morning by a number of their favourite 5FM DJ’s who arrived to inspire and spur the volunteers on. Damon Kalvari and Kim Schulze joined in and took an active part in the building on site, pausing only briefly to speak to the media or for live crossings to the 5FM studio in Gauteng to report on the day and the progress with the builds.
At 13:00, the volunteers downed tools and were treated to a well-deserved break in the Mfuleni High School Hall with lunch very kindly provided by John Dory’s.
For the afternoon session some of the listeners were given the opportunity to be part of the sporting activities provided by Mfuleni High School with the 5FM volunteers competing against the pupils in 5-aside soccer and netball and also being able to join the skateboarding and rollerblading clinic very kindly provided by Inspired2become (an NGO focusing on youth development through sport).
At the end of the day and with house number 5 finally completed, the volunteers on site were able to be part of the special handover ceremony to the beneficiary.
"We are excited to be part of the 5FM Youngblood5 initiative, bringing the youth together to help build homes for others in need and in the process, through their selfless contribution and involvement, playing a key role in making a tangible difference to five families who will be the recipient of homes they have helped to build. Although we build all year around, we believe this initiative will be a great lead up to our National Youth Build in June in helping to inspire the rest of the youth in South Africa to come together from schools, colleges, technikons and universities to both fundraise and volunteer their time so that together, we can achieve the target we have set ourselves of building 36 houses in one week", said Adrienne Burke, Habitat’s National Marketing & Communication Officer.
For more information or if you would like to become involved in the process visit their website: www.habitat.org.za or contact their Head Office on (021) 657 5640
Habitat for Humanity South Africa is a leading non-profit company. They are part of Habitat for Humanity International, which was founded in 1976 and today has branches in more than 80 countries worldwide.
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