Derelict Die Kamp is now a place of hope
● They wanted to save souls. Instead they rescued a community.
A neighbourly act of goodwill to help residents of an informal settlement outside the Garden Route town of Wilderness has grown into a major social development success story.
Lindsay Hogan and her husband, Brad, decided to revitalise a derelict school building adjoining a patch of corrugated iron poverty called Die Kamp, a makeshift settlement home to mostly former farmworker families evicted off nearby farms.
But unlike those who wanted the evicted families to disappear, the Hogans wanted to put them on the map — and set about using the facility as the base for a community upliftment project.
“My husband used to run past that building and always wondered why nobody was doing anything with the area,” Hogan said of the project’s origins. “The building was really dilapidated.”
Their food packaging project struggled along for a few years until they decided to involve their fellow parishioners from the Hope Church in George, who have adopted Die Kamp as one of their outreach projects.
The charitable infusion has spawned several other initiatives, and now Die Kamp has access to basic medical services, crèche facilities, youth groups, food relief and, significantly, a blossoming job creation and skills development programme.
“Nothing worked as well as when we partnered with the Hope Church and they took over the running of the place,” Hogan said.
Initially the community members viewed the project with suspicion. “We thought they were just wannabes — people who pretend to help,” said Rashieda Biel, now a youth leader in the church. “But the more people got involved, the more they saw that they were actually helping.”
More community members began attending church services and youth group meetings, Biel said. “When we first started the group meetings it was mostly young kids, but now we even get people of 18 years and over. More kids are coming along. We’re trying to get them out of the substance abuse they are in, such as alcohol, tik and dagga.”
It’s not ‘us’ and ‘them’
They former school precinct is now a bustling crèche and Hope Art workshop, where several community members produce handcrafted products such as stuffed toys and beaded jewellery. Profits go towards caring for orphans in western Zambia.
There is also a kitchen, ablutions and playground facilities. Two crèche carers chatted happily with several children in a colourfully decorated playroom when the Sunday Times visited this month. The walls of the communal kitchen are adorned with motivational graffiti such as “Together we make a family”.
Hope Art project co-ordinator Lelethu Stuurman said her upbringing in a township outside George allowed her to connect to the project beneficiaries.
“I sort of relate to some of the issues,” she said.
Mark Green, a former fisherman and project assistant for the past three years, said he believed the project’s success stemmed from its ability to “break down barriers between people”. He said: “It is not ‘us and them’, it is ‘we’.
“They are so used to hearing that bad attitude and are not used to people talking nicely to them. You keep on and keep on, but you don’t push it. As a result I’ve noticed a mega change in a lot of the kids.”
Despite the project’s best efforts, Die Kamp remains an unofficial settlement without formal housing. Most of the homes are ramshackle wooden structures with mismatched windows and door frames. Residents complain of too few toilets and taps.
Noticeably cheerful, however, is Die Kamp’s oldest resident, 83-year-old Amelia Adonis, who went blind several years ago due to a condition she describes as “confetti behind the eyes”.
Despite her condition Adonis has few complaints. “You must get old. It is lovely here,” she said.