Ya Bana Village, community launch Winterveldt clean-up
Ya Bana for the Children and the Winterveldt community’s clean-up initiative is taking place every Friday.

The Winterveldt community recently benefitted from the launch of a new clean-up initiative.
The project was initiated by the founder and CEO of Ya Bana Village for the Children, Carina Goosen.
It is an initiative of both the organisation and the Winterveldt community.
Launched on February 9, it takes place every Friday to keep the area clean and economically empowered.
The organisation is located near to a wetland, where there is illegal dumping due to irregular service delivery in the community.
Ya Bana fundraising and marketing person Naomi Brink said they are planning to start registering 150 local people who attended the launch to participate in this initiative.
On the first Friday of the launch, 600 bags of refuse were collected from the wetland by 150 community members who had attended.
According to Brink, they were so overwhelmed that they decided to extended the clean-up project for the next two weeks.
She shared that their Moola stock (their own currency) is also a challenge, because they are still buying stock and are hoping to get sponsorships from retailers.
At Ya Bana Village and in the Winterveldt community, people who help keep the area clean are rewarded with Moolas and take home these groceries for the right amount.
Brink explained that a Moola has no monetary value and that one bag of refuse is exchanged for one Moola.
To buy one 2.5kg bag of maize meal costs 8 Moolas (8 bags of refuse), a packet of sanitary pads costs 1 Moola and 1kg sugar costs 8 Moolas.
“It is quite a process for an NPO to be registered at the big retailers, Pick n Pay will only open for registration in June,” she said.
She added that Shoprite currently donates fresh products that are about to expire.
Winterveldt community member Lisa Ngobeni said this clean-up initiative helps lots of families and keeps the environment clean as the community no longer dumps everywhere.
“They now can take their rubbish bags to Ya Bana and they are also able to get groceries for their waste,” she said.
Ya Bana Village for the Children, founded in Winterveldt, Mabopane has 58 children in its care, and has been around for almost 20 years.
According to the organisation, it is well-established with an excellent reputation and operates under strict principles of corporate governance and is accountable to donors and the community.

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