Masupatsela

SHOEBOX HOMES
DIRECTED and EDITED by TINA-LOUISE SMITH
TX 19th October 2009

Shoebox Homes is a Non-Profit Organisation that grew out of a design competition called the 36m² Design Challenge. Charles Maisel and Kathy Ackerman put their heads together and thought a competition would be a great way to try to address problems of overcrowding especially in low income houses.

Winners of the competition, Yi-Jang Tsai  and Aram Lello, are members of the Shoebox Homes board today. Tsai, as he is known, won for his nested bunk beds. These bunk beds come in packs of five that fit snugly one underneath the other, taking up the space of one bed when nested away. When they expand they cover about 5m widthways. The beds are multi-functional and can be expanded to provide extra seating during the day. When nested they allow for more space in the room for children to play.

Cordelia Woniwe’s foster home, Imitha Yelanga, benefited from the nested bunk beds and is now able to provide individual beds for ten of the children living with her.

Aram’s winning design allowed a small space in Factreton Cape Town to grow bigger without changing the size of the house. With runners in the ceiling, the Samuels Family is now able to push the walls that divide the lounge and the bedrooms deep into the bedrooms to create more space to socialise in the living area during the day. At night, they return these movable walls to their place in the lounge, allowing the family to lower their beds in the bedrooms and turn in for a good night’s rest. The bedroom side of the movable walls also have cupboard space for hanging and folding clothing.

Shoebox Homes would like to expand to a stage where they have a little shop that sells their growing design collection to the low income market. At the moment they are still at the stage where they need sponsors to donate their products to organisations.

TO CONTACT SHOEBOX HOMES:
visit their web site or contact Charles Maisel on +27 21 461 8376.

TO FOLLOW IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF SHOEBOX HOMES, HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO DO:
- work out what challenge you would like to address with design
- round-up designers who are interested in your project and rising to your challenge
- set-up an NGO / Section 21 company
- get a project manager on board to manage your project and the various clients
- raise funds to execute your first project
- have the designers design their solution to the challenge
- implement the design with support from funders

TO CONTRIBUTE TO IMITHA YELANGA OR CONTACT CORDELIA WONIWE:
call her on +27 76 592 8090.

PLEASE SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE TO VIEW SCREEN GRABS FROM THE SHOEBOX HOMES STORY

MAKANA MEADERY
DIRECTED by ALETTE SCHOON
EDITED by TINA-LOUISE SMITH
TX 19th October

When Garth Cambray discovered his parents’ gardener stealing honey from his beehive, he learnt from the gardener that it was to be able to make iQhilika, a local Xhosa mead. iQhilika, like all alcohol, gets its name from the sugar that is used to make it: alcohol from honey is called mead, alcohol from grapes is called wine, and alcohol made from malted seeds is called beer.

His interest piqued, Garth investigated further and decided to research iQhilika for his PhD in biotechnology. His PhD research allowed Garth to modernise the technology used in making iQhilika, which he subsequently shared with the local mead makers. The next step for Garth was to patent his mead making process and start Makana Meadery.

Makana Meadery as a business is interested in a triple bottom line: people, planet and profit. It is important for Makana Meadery that their production process does not harm the environment and that it benefits the people who work for it, including making them happier and healthier people. Financial profit is important to maintain the business, but it is not the main focus.

Makana also trains beekeepers and in this episode we meet Richard Nzwana and Collin Ngqobe, two of the blind beekeepers from GADRA Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired, who have been trained by Makana. Andile Ndyawe works for Kwandwe Game Reserve as a wildlife ranger and was also trained to work with bees in the wild. We also meet Phumlani Honi, who works in the Makana workshop where they make beehives, catch boxes and frames for honey production.

Mead is drunk throughout Africa and was drunk across medieval Europe before the 15th Century when European bees started becoming extinct after Europeans cut down most of their forests to build ships. Today the only bees that survive in Europe are those that are looked after and medicated by humans.

TO CONTRIBUTE TO MAKANA MEADERY OR PURCHASE SOME MEAD:
call Garth Cambray on +27 46 636 1227, email him or visit their web site.

TO FOLLOW IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF MAKANA MEADERY WITH YOUR OWN BIOTECHNOLOGY PROJECT:
- find the knowledge that you will be able to work with
- learn how to work with that knowledge and what it can produce
- set-up a marketing and distribution network for this product
- teach neighbours and community members how to develop and manufacture the product
- make sure you preserve the old knowledge for generations to come
- use the remains to create and produce other useful things.

SCREEN GRABS FROM THE SHOEBOX HOMES AND MAKANA MEADERY STORIES: