Groutville care givers get eco-friendly support

As part of the Urban-LEDS Project, (implemented by ICLEI Africa in partnership with UN-Habitat and funded by the European Commission), the KwaDukuza Municipality has teamed up with ICLEI Africa and the NPO Child Welfare to support these families while also show casing ways to save energy in a practical manner.

Each of the twenty care homes received a Wonderbag insulation cooker, a mobile solar LED light and compost container to assist them on their journey in going green. They also received training on how to use each of these items and why it is important to save electricity.

Wonderbag: This is a simple but revolutionary, non-electric portable slow cooker. It continues to cook food, which has been brought to the boil by conventional methods for up to 8 hours without the use of additional electricity or fuel. Each of the participants also received a cookbook. http://www.wonderbag.co.za/

Mobile solar LED light: Energy efficient, eco-friendly, robust portable lamp with 120 lumen light output, is a perfect lamp that best suits for demanding rural environments. The lamp is equipped with a mobile phone charger, USB port enabling users to charge a mobile phone any time. It features 3 brightness settings providing up to 48 hours of lighting with one day of solar charge. The 7 simple usage allows the lamp to hand carry, hook to the ceiling, mount on the wall, place on the desk, fix on a bottle top and carry on a pole.

http://www.schneider-electric.com/en/product-range/62203-portable-off-grid-lighting/

Compost bucket: This counter-top compost bucket is an effective way to divert food waste from landfill through encouraging separation at source. A sticker was designed for the simple 5-litre plastic bucket to remind the residents what they can add to the bucket. This needs to be decanted into the garden compost and then used in the food garden as compost.

The next step is that each of the care homes will make their own food garden. Child Welfare in Stanger has already assisted in creating 53 food gardens in the area and will be providing guidance to the families. They will receive tools and seeds to assist them with starting their food gardens. Food security is an important aspect as climate change impacts on everyone’s daily lives and the KwaDukuza Municipality has already provided each of the care homes with two fruit trees.

The project will provide the residents with improved living conditions, cost savings, energy saving, improved food security and skills training. All of this will contribute to the reduction in carbon emissions and showcases what families can do in their homes.

This project in KwaDukuza is one of 5 community showcase installations being implemented in the Urban-LEDS project. Communities and public buildings in Nelson Mandela Bay, Mogale City, Steve Tshwete Municipality, and uMhlathuze are also involved in demonstrating the potential for social and economic development through greening initiatives. For more information, visit www.iclei.org/africa or www.urban-leds.org

10 August 2015

Photographs of the training are available.

Contacts:
The key contacts for this project are as follows:
Project manager for Urban LEDS Community Showcase: ICLEI representative in KwaDukuza:
Grace Stead Mbali Mpanza
Grace.stead@gmail.com Mbali.Mpanza@iclei.org
Cell: 0767 80 70 10 Cell: 074 873 8477

Senior Social Work Manager at CWSA KwaDukuza: KwaDukuza Local Municipality:
Penny Dhaver Sikhumbuzo Hlongwane

Email: stangerchildwelfare@telkomsa.net SikhumbuzoH@kwadukuza.gov.za
Tel: 032 551 2129

President of CWSA KwaDukuza: Vice president of CWSA KwaDukuza:
Mr.Sandeep Oudhram Mr. Deva Naidu
sandeepoudhram@gmail.com ndeva@telkomsa.net
Cell: 0824406569 Cell: 0762278262