Jac’s Africa Diary: Tuesday 4th Sept - we arrive at Kings Grant Country Retreat

Sanibonnani!  (Good afternoon).

We’re here!  Arrived at Kings Grant, Ixopo, today just around lunchtime after nearly 18 hours of travelling, to a welcome buffet lunch and, so we gathered, a very rare treat.  All of the staff came out and sang two traditional Zulu songs especially to greet us.  Dressed in their work gear, cleaners, cooks….all with the most wonderful voices.  Absolutely fantastic.

We’ve just come out of an informative briefing,  covering safety on site during the build, cultural considerations and what to expect during the week.  We also had a briefing from Sue from Habitat for Humanity.  The Charity has thousands of building projects throughout the world.  

The project we’re helping with is the Mizki Agri Village, about 30km from Ixopo, where HFH have bought some land adjacent to a village and by completely integrating and involving the local community, are building solid homes to replace their mud and wattle houses (that disintegrate in wet weather), working with the families to provide the means to farm, have clean water, a school, Church and establishing a sustainable environment.

We will be helping to build a house for each of two families.  The build is only part of what we’ll be doing over the next two days.  We’ll be working alongside the families, talking to them, getting to know them, so we can understand their lives more, as well as providing them with extra hands.  The community drives the project - it’s very much theirs and we’re all really looking forward to meeting them.

I’m lucky to be sharing this experience with a great bunch of people, all of whom have been chosen for their commitment to CSR.

They are:

Lucy Collins from Black Tomato, Julia Jawnyj from Euro Skybridge, Izania Downie- Eventia, Aileen Reuter-Maritz, John Strachan-Maximillion, Fional Pelham-Organise This, Bernadette Moss-Universal CIT, Victoria Pratt-World Events and John Kelly-Zibrant. 

Our Hosts:

Rufus Bullough from Charity Challenge, Yasmin Razak-Conference & Incentive Travel Magazine, Patricia D’Arcy-South African Tourism and Brad Glen and Taryn Paola from DMC, Inside Edge.

We’ve settled into our comfortable rooms and I’m about to go down for dinner.  After that, it’s definitely to bed!  We’re up at 6am tomorrow for breakfast and then to travel to the Village.

MORE ABOUT THE MZIKI AGRI VILLAGE & KINGS GRANT:

Mziki is an agricultural community, between the Drakensburg mountain range and the Indian Ocean, just South West of Durban near Ixopo (pronounced Icopo, the Zulu name that came from the sound an animal makes squelching through mud!).  In the midlands of the vast KwaZulu region.

The community is a traditional settlement, with ‘kraals’ enclosing round huts, spread over a vast area. Because of the distances, bringing water and electricity to the area is virtually impossible.

High unemployment and the inability of families to sustain themselves by using the land through lack of skills, knowledge and the resources. llness, poor nutrition, Aids – all of these things are taking their toll, let alone the lack of basic services; toilets, clean water, medical aid, electricity,  all of which the Mziki Agri village Project is working to address.

The project aims to provide a holistic approach to developing the community. It’s aim is to provide just under 400 houses, each with land for the families. Skill training, education, health facilities will be built to enable the families to become an empowered community able to sustain itself.

KINGS GRANT


Nestled in a tranquil valley, for over one hundred years King’s Grant was run by the resident Mariannhill Monks as the St Isidor Mission and Millworks. Originally built by German Trappist Monks in 1891, and turned it into a thriving and busy little haven which consisted of well cultivated crops, a maize mill, a double storey dairy and hayloft, a brick factory, a piggery, a chapel and also accommodation for the hard-working brothers and sisters.

‘St Isidor’ soon became an important source of fodder and field crops for the surrounding missions, the local hospital and the ‘Little Flower’ school. The ancient red brick buildings have been restored and converted into an enchanting country guesthouse with Bed & Breakfast as well as self-catering accommodation.