Children’s home’s foops create steady income
The project is an opportunity for young adults from the home to have the security of a stable income
SIPHUMELELE Children’s Home has come up with a fantastic and innovative way of sustaining themselves – through their very own creation called “foops”.
The idea for the project was sparked when the Edleen home received hundreds of metres of material last year from Ergosystem Flexible Walling Solutions and needed to find ideas on how to use the material to create a steady income for them.
This would, at the same time, help create employment for some of the children who had come of age and needed work.
The idea was that if Siphumelele could find a way to create income for themselves using the material, they would keep donating leftover fabric as they complete projects (the fabric is used to cover screens installed in corporate offices).
And indeed, a year and a half later, the home has found the perfect way to use the material.
Under the name “Kanye Kanye” (which means light) the home is creating their very own “foops” – 100 per cent recycled ottomans.
Each foop is made from waste fabric that was destined for the landfill, and come in two sizes – small, perfect for elevating those tired feet after a long day, and a larger one which can be used as a chair (the kids will love this one).
The foops are also available in a wide range of bright colours and patterns, including red and black soccer ball designs, yellow, orange and black bumble bees as well as yellow-eyed blue owl faces.
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Bianca van Wyngaard, Siphumelele’s chairman, said they were looking for a hand up and not a handout, and the project was a way for the home to raise money for themselves and create a programme for the young adults who have “graduated” from the home.
“The production process of the foops is a collective effort by volunteers and young adults who have graduated’ from Siphumelele. The Kanye Kanye project is a unique opportunity for these young adults, who are unable to find permanent employment, to have the security of an income. The project also grooms them for the formal work environment by providing them with formal on-the-job training and access to internships with small businesses to contribute to their skills development,” van Wyngaard explained.
The foops have also been a hit at fleamarkets, first getting exposure at the Monte Casino Christmas Market last year and selling out within four days.
“Buying these foops will help with not only funding Siphumelele’s daily operational costs like electricity, food, schooling and crucial programmes such as counselling for the children, but will also go towards creating employment for Siphumelele’s graduateswhen they finish school and leave the security of the welfare,” said van Wyngaard.
“As Siphumelele we would like to thank people for supporting the home. And we also just wanted to show the community how far we’ve come in helping ourselves by creating a unique way of raising money and creating employment for our graduating kids. This will also help greatly in getting help for the next phase of the project which is the finance (enterprise development) aspect of things as well as hopefully raising enough money to afford a premises to run the operations from.”
The community can also help with the project by collecting plastic bottles and dropping them off at the home, or at John Wesley Children’s Home, which is also benefiting through the project.
“We need a lot of bottles if we are going to be successful selling over the Christmas markets,” van Wyngaard explained.
Siphumelele is situated at 21 Olyf Street, Edleen.
John Wesley is at 58 Van Der Walt Street, Kempton.
For more information, contact van Wyngaard on 082-900-5547 or social auxiliary worker Lizzy Motlhala on 078-392-1550.
