HOUT BAY PROJECT

About Hangberg and Hout Bay project

At Meraki we seek to create projects within Hangberg that are led by members of the community itself. In addition, we try to encourage the children of our program to run Meraki in the future.

We have four pillars through which we drive the Hangberg community:

MERAKI AFTERSCHOOL PROGRAM (Main Program).                                                                                                                                                                      ECOLOGICAL GARDEN
COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT
ENTREPRENEURSHIP (AIRBNB TOURS)


Our main goal is to transform the community through the community itself. That is, by empowering local people and involving them in each of the pillars. They must have a sense of belonging to the project and therefore seek the progress of the community through Meraki.
Our goal is to achieve sustainable cyclical projects, that is, if in the future they develop autonomously by the local community, vary according to the needs of each moment and grow being the former components the next project leaders, we will no longer be needed. That is the ultimate goal.

 

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  • MERAKI AFTERSCHOOL PROGRAM
    Lack of resources. Precocious labor for easy money. School dropouts. Drug addiction, malnutrition. Lack of role-models. Destructured families. Illnesses without medical attention. Lack of school supplies. Lack of motivation for life. This is an after-school project where Meraki’s boys and girls share two hours a day developing their potential through different activities organized by our project leaders. They carry out activities such as: art, decorative activities, sports, values, care and maintenance of the ecological garden, excursions.
    We have an average of 20-25 children per session, always trying to be the same children who come to the program. The schedule is from 15:30h – 17:00h, except on days when they finish school earlier, when we bring the sessions forward.
    This project is led by Najua and Shade, two women from the community who prepare, organize and direct the activities that are carried out with the group. Differentiating the themes of each day, the local project leaders prepare the entire weeks a month in advance. They define the materials that will be needed for each activity and our project manager (Ibtishaam) is in charge of purchasing them. Every session follows what is planned and organized by the leader.
    The sessions are held in a space reserved for them from Monday to Friday located in the community itself. Some of the activities are outdoors: on excursion days, at the beach or in the organic garden.
    The older ones are taken into account with small responsibilities so that, little by little, they can become future leaders. The group is allowed freedom of     expression at all times. A snack is given to the participants of the program every day after the session.

     

  • ECOLOGICAL GARDEN
    Our second project consists of a space that links the children of the community with nature, where they are in charge of maintaining and caring for it. Hangberg is a community in which there is not much awareness of the importance of keeping the space/environment in which you live clean. That is why we want to instill these values in the children. We combine community cleanups with an ecological garden where we plant fruits and vegetables.
    Najua, one of the people responsible for the activities with the children at Meraki, is also in charge of caring for and maintaining the ecological garden outside of the children’s schedule. The fruits and vegetables from the garden are used to prepare meals and snacks.
    The cleanups of the Hangerb community, the harbor and the beach of Hout Bay to help and promote the cleanliness of the community. We want to raise awareness of the importance of maintaining the space in which they live.     

  • COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT
    Meraki is the only Spanish NGO with a presence in South Africa. However, the project manager and the two people responsible for the program with the children of Hout Bay are local people from the Hangberg community itself.
    We seek to empower the community and give them the tools and means to be able to develop the program. We organize workshops and meetings with all our employees to train them in each of their positions. Meraki seeks to give them the freedom to continue training, and we motivate them to continue doing so. We are proud to know that some of the workers who were part of Meraki, have managed to find a better job thanks to the training received with us, the values and the time they have been part of our team.
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