Pioneers Skills Development Institute in conjunction with the Municipality identified an indigent house hold which the owner was staying in a one room shack with her 3 grandchildren, as part of Pioneers Social Responsibility Policy, the learners completed the last part of their workplace learning by building a Normal sized RDP house for this family, this was achieved with the complement of the skills the learners have acquired through the training. This initiative has significantly benefited both the learners and the family, with the latter having moved out of the shack and they now proudly own a house.

 

This family has been living in the shack for 3 Years, the granny who could not stop expressing her gratitude towards this initiative, she has indicated how this has changed her life and also specified how they use to suffer during rainy seasons as the roof of their shack was leaking. She further expressed how initiatives like this could benefit more people who are in a similar situation as hers if they can be rolled out in these deep rural poor communities.

 

The house was completed in 3 weeks and the Ubuhlebezwe Local Municipality also played a significant role to make sure that this was fully realized within the time frames, amongst other things they provided was earth moving equipment as the place is sloppy and needed leveling. The learners are now taking pride of their work after having proved that they can now build a tangible masonry structure with and without supervision, this also came as an enhancement to their confidence in their building and construction skills. This has been their best highlight since the beginning of the project.

 

All the building materials for the work was fully funded by Pioneers Skills Development Institute’ however, more impact could be made if this could be taken as a lesson learned, a highlight and be incorporated into the project budget in future and be made a norm. This will also encourage the learners to value the projects more and not only focus on the stipend as they will be making real impact in their own communities, and will also showcase to the public the quality of training they have received against value for money.

 

The house was completed on the last date of the training and officially handed over to the family.
The initiative is in line with Pioneers Skills Development Institute’s motto/vision: Our priority is excellence through efficient and exhilarating training and development.

 

Pictures exemplifying all the stages of the construction are attached and captioned below.