Ivor Markman
 
IN her determination to look after physically and mentally handicapped children, a dedicated ex-psychology lecturer from the University of Fort Hare has made it her personal quest to raise funds for the children by creating work for unemployed Bedford township residents, using her personal finances when necessary.
When Lana Blom arrived in the town eight years ago with her husband, Ben, to start a furniture factory, she was inundated by people looking for work.
At the same time Louisa Nxele, wife of the reverend of the Congregational Church in the nearby Polla Park township, approached her for assistance with her own project, the Thembani Day Care Centre for physically and mentally disabled children.
Lana readily agreed to help and soon found herself in the position of chairman of the centre.
Lana then also started the Thembani Handcraft Projects, an offspring of Thembani Day Care Centre, with the aim of creating as many jobs as possible in Bedford.
“We believe every single person has capabilities, abilities and gifts. Living a full life depends on whether those capabilities can be used,” said Lana.
“Psychological studies have shown the most prominent symptom (of unemployment) is not depression, but apathy.

"The unemployed become increasingly indifferent and their initiative trickles away.
“Living in impoverished conditions increases a woman's risk to all types of violence.

"Women and girls are often prepared for marriage and child rearing but not for the job market,” she said.
The project was initially started as a skills training programme for women but after the initial training the women returned home and once again had no work.
“I first trained women, under the Department of Labour's module, in handcrafts, garment making and rural business skills, but in the end the training wasn't enough so I thought to create work,” said Lana.
“We made duvets, we tried to sell clothes, odds and ends and handcrafts,” she said.
“My friends treat me differently now that I am employed,” said Ivannita Adonis who has now been employed since 2001.
“Having work has given me confidence. I now feel if I ever leave here I will be able to obtain work elsewhere.

"I have learnt basic computer skills, learnt how to use a sewing machine and at home I’m now able to provide food and clothes for my family, something I wasn’t able to do in the past,” she said.
To create more jobs Lana also started a tea garden and nursery.
“We serve meals and are open from seven to five every week day and on Saturdays until 12pm.
“We have our own little organic vegetable garden for the restaurant. Any extra is for the staff.
The Robin Good Foundation (a national food-supplying organisation with branches in Gauteng, Cape Town, KwaZulu Natal and Port Elizabeth) donated two food growing tunnels to the project which have been placed alongside the restaurant.
To augment the restaurant, a nursery was started where, apart from the vegetables, plants are grown and sold to the public.
The restaurant’s reputation is growing. “We only started about three or four months ago and people are stopping here more and more,” she said.
“The day-care centre falls under PE Mental Health, but the money we get is not enough to sustain it or to pay Nxele. A lot of the proceeds of the garden and a lot of extra money goes to this project.

"Ten per cent of the tips go towards the day care centre. If there’s not enough money in the handcraft side I use up my husband’s money – he's quite nice about that,” she laughed.

“We then decided to do something else and contacted a large recycling firm, Sindawonye Granulated, and asked them if there was something we could do manually,” she said.
The firm decide to help and talks began about the viability of stripping optic cable.

"Telkom are interested in recycling cables that have been upgraded or pieces too short to be used again.

"Previously the cable was simply dumped.
“This project is under the auspices of Telkom and we are sub-contractors for Sindawonye Granulated.”
A monthly fee is paid plus an incentive, depending on the quantity of optic cable stripped.
“We were the first people in the world to successfully strip optic cable manually,” said Lana.
Items of value in the cabling include Kevlar (the registered trademark for a light, strong, heat-resistant, synthetic fiber used in aerospace and military applications, for body armor fabric, and as an asbestos substitute), thread suitable for embroidery, thread for candle wicking and the plastic outer casings.
“We strip and bale the casings and sell it back to Sindawonye Granulated.

"There are actually two plastic casings, PVC and polyethylene, she said.
To begin with, the rolls of optic cable are dumped on the site, “almost in spaghetti form”, and the workers sort it out.

It’s then pulled through a stripper machine, supplied by Sindawonye Granulated, where it is cut open and sorted into the various components.
Some of the plastic is recycled in the form of plastic fencing poles and some is used by large industries in Johannesburg while the kevlar is sold to a company in Pietermaritzburg who use it to make bullet-proof vests for export.
Wastage is negligible: there is only one thin thread they are unable to use and this is dumped at an approved dumping site.
“There's nothing we can really do with it. We tried to make baskets and little mats but it's not practical,” said Lana.

 

Text: Copyright Ivor Markman 2013