‘Hand up, not handout’
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: BUILDING WILL BECOME A MINI ECONOMY
Will comprise living spaces, recycling centre, woodwork facility, sewing station, rooftop garden.
The degradation of Johannesburg’s inner city has become a headache for city managers and buildings being hijacked is no longer news. This is especially true in Hillbrow, which is known for high levels of population density, unemployment and poverty. Crime has soared and rubbish-strewn streets are commonplace, with some historic buildings falling into ruin.
One of these buildings is Florence Nightingale House, formerly Florence Nightingale Hospital. After 1998, the building was transformed into a displaced person’s facility, with many residents today having been there since then.
The building was officially abandoned in 2016 and fell into decay. The seven-storey building currently has roughly 600 residents and the Malaika Orphanage Centre, which houses between 150 to 200 children.
In the face of neglect, the residents were in need of help.
Skye Burgess and Joshua de Villiers, cofounders of The People SA, a nonprofit organisation providing support for local communities, said the transformation of Florence Nightingale was a long-term project, resting on the four pillars of building rescue, social upliftment, industry development and the battle for human rights.
The aim is to not only transform the Florence into a safe haven for residents, but to create its own economic ecosystem through a three-phase process. By providing organisation and creating entrepreneurial employment, The People hope to create significant
and sustainable change, offering a hand up and not a handout, working with the community to help them help themselves.
The first phase began with internal cleaning and repainting of the building, installing the first dustbins and setting up a building council to keep it in order.
Then, attention turned to cleaning the building’s courtyard that had approximately 800 tons of rubbish in it.
“With 420 tons already removed in partnership with Move1Million, we realised we needed to find a company who could help us efficiently remove the rest. Our last waste management company let us down, so we reached out to Averda for help,” Burgess said.
Managing director Justice Tootla said when he received the call, he was concerned about the harmful effects the enormous pile of rotting waste might be
having on the health of people living in the building, especially the children. “Health risks can range from respiratory diseases to bites from the vermin feeding and living off the waste and also intestinal infections transmitted by flies.”
Removing this amount of waste was a huge task. “Our operations department got straight to work, firstly undertaking a site visit and then developing an effective waste removal plan, including developing a collection schedule,” Tootla said.
This undertaking will take the Averda team from two to four days and will require compactors, bobcats, skips and trucks.
To ensure the clean up results of phase one are maintained, 40 steel dustbins will be installed and Averda will supply the building with recycling bins from which waste will be collected on a weekly basis, at no cost.
In phase two, Burgess and her team will start renovating the orphanage and repainting and revamping the building.
The last phase is a long-term plan for sustainability and complete community upliftment. A recycling station, woodwork facilities and sewing station, as well a rooftop garden would be set up. There would also be a learning facility where children can spend their afternoons.
“Our goal is to be the bridge for those who want to escape the poverty trap and support for those who want to help themselves. Instead of pointing out the problems, we want to find the solutions and be the change we want to see in the world.
“Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much more. Through the support of Move1Million, Goscor (Bobcats), Averda, as well as working alongside the local community, true change began to transpire,” said Burgess.
We want to find the solutions