This post is the start of a sister project!
The Grahamstown Project is working in partnership with St Philips Anglican Church (Fingo Village) to transform St Philips Church and grounds into a Tourism Site. The church was built in 1860 and has cultural, spiritual and historical significance.
It’s humble beginnings but we hope to attract many locals and foreigners to visit the church. The initiative will create jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities. Surplus funds will be invested in repairs & maintenance to the Church and grounds.
Step 1 of the plan is a mass clean-up of the grounds on Saturday 6 April 2019, 8:30am – 4pm. The grounds have been used as an informal dump-site for some time. The congregation and local residents will lead the clean-up and we invite others to join in.
Food and refreshments will be served to those who help with the clean-up. The church will be open to visitors and in addition to the physical work we are expecting much fellowship and a festive atmosphere.
There are various ways in which individuals and groups can contribute to the clean-up:
* Physical labour for all or part of the day.
* Donations to purchase goods and services required for the day.
* Supply of black bags and gloves.
* Loan of tools and equipment such as spades, rakes, wheelbarrows, brush-cutters, clippers etc.
* Use of bakkies, trailers, skips etc to remove the rubbish collected.
* Provision of signage to dissuade people from using church grounds as dump-site.
* Education on recycling, composting, and reduction of one-time-use-plastics.
* Demonstration / production of Eco-Bricks.
Contributors will be appropriately acknowledged and thanked. Following the clean-up, as we have done for Oatlands Park, a small team will be engaged to maintain the site free of litter and begin the process of beautification and transformation into a tourism site. Aside from the tourism opportunity this initiative seeks to create litter-free zones.
We look forward to seeing you on Saturday 6 April. Please contact me should you have questions and / or an interest in participating.
Happy Sunday. Best wishes.
Graeme
Thank you to Makana Revive who is providing financial support to this project.
GRAEME HOLMES
Before moving back to Grahamstown in Oct 2017, Graeme was a bank executive based in the big smoke and craziness of Joburg. He has 20 years’ experience in the Payments Industry. He is a Chartered Accountant, has a Masters in Management by Research (MMR) from Wits Business School, and attended an Advanced Management Programme (AMP) offered by INSEAD (The Business School for the World!) in France.
Graeme is the founder of The Grahamstown Project. It’s simple. He says, “Grahamstown is a microcosm of South Africa. If we can’t get this place to function properly then the whole country is stuffed. Many of the troubles we experience as a country today have their roots here in Grahamstown. it is here where black and white people first engaged in conflict on the African continent. It is here where 9 wars of dispossession over 100 years took place and virtually destroyed the amaXhosa nation. But we are where we are. I don’t have a British passport and the boat-trip back to where my ancestors came from is exorbitantly expensive. Furthermore, this is my home. I am a son of Africa. We must work together to redress the injustices of the past and move as one into a brighter future.”
Graeme is an avid historian, writer, vlogger and public speaker. Like and follow the Facebook page. Join him on a tour. Contact him. He would love that.
GRAEME HOLMES
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