Thank you to everyone who took the time out of their busy schedules to join us on Monday at Blomvlei Primary School in Hanover Park for our ground breaking celebration.

The school is the door to the future of this community and the Blomvlei Library and Educational Garden will be a place of inspiration, safety and learning for the community of Hanover Park.

Programs which we will work with NGO’s to implement at the Library will include:
• Literacy development
• Thinking skills
• Business Life Skills
• Career Guidance and exposure to career opportunities.

We have also incorporated into the project :
• Employment of local community with building skills during the building.
• Recycling depot on the school premises
• Food Tents – vegetable tents for growing produce to use and sell.

We would like to thank all our sponsors and the support from our Friends of the Trust,

WHAT IS OUR CALL TO ACTION
1.SECURE SUFFICIENT FUNDS TO MAKE THE DREAM COME TRUE.
2. ENCOURAGE ALL MEMBERS OF THE TOURISM INDUSTRY TO JOIN AS FRIENDS OF THE
TRUST AND SUPPORT THE GOOD WORK WE DO.
3. GET THE COMMUNITY, PARENTS AND CHILDREN INVOLVED.
4. FINDING PARTNERS AND RESOURCES TO ESTABLISH AN EXTRA MURAL CURRICULUM

• Total building cost for the Library is : R2 700 000.00
• We have already fund raised to date: R2 000 000.00
• Shortfall still to be raised : R 700 000.00

Blomvlei Multipurpose Center : Hanover Park, Cape Flats.
“We could start to make a difference”

Dear Friends of the TCD Trust

You are invited !

With your help we have begun building phase1 of the Blomvlei Multipurpose Center -
The Library and Educational Garden.

Please join us to celebrate the beginning of construction of the Blomvlei Library and
Educational Garden in Hanover Park on Monday the 22 February.

“Schools must become centers of community life”

Date : 22 February 2010
Place : Blomvlei Primary School, Hanover Park.
Time : 14:00hrs – 15:00hrs

Dress code – closed shoes

Here are some photo’s taken this morning to show how wonderful
and exciting the progress is at Blomvlei Primary School in Hanover Park.
The very first foundations of construction of the library.

Construction has only just begun and already a meeting was held today to
start implementing at the school the first social upliftment programme.

The sessions focus on the 4 pillars of a healthy home foundation :

“Children LEARN what they LIVE ! “

1. Proud – 2 – B – Me Youth Programme which focuses on
The child’s role & responsibility as a positive youth, self esteem,
communication skills and my value and character.

2. Proud 2 Parent – same focus as above but working with the
parents in the community.

3. Proud to Learn – same course but done with all the teachers
at Blomvlei Primary School.

We have only dug one foundation and we can already see the change
starting to happen for this school and community.

Help us to complete this dream and start making a change for the community of Hanover Park – become a Friend of the Trust TODAY !

Logon to our website www.tcdtrust.org.za or contact Bronwen on 079 899 2294

First site meeting

It was with great excitement to have our first site meeting on Monday at Blomvlei
Primary School in Hanover Park. Construction of phase one, the library, begins on the 1st February 2010.

arG are the architectural company who have designed and planned the
Blomvlei Community Center and under their professional advice we have
appointed Drucon Building Contractors. They have a good understanding of
the project and what we are wanting to achieve with the community center.

Drucon recently completed the Football for Hope project in Cape Town
which made us more confident that we had a contractor who had previous
experience of building projects which involved community development.
They also have a number of their permanent building team who live in Hanover Park
so this also makes them a great choice as they have an understanding of the community and the needs of this community.

Once construction begins we will be able to organise visits to the project but it must be by appointment only. Everyone will also have to adhere to strict safety rules and will only be allowed on site with closed shoes and a hard hat.

We will be having an opening ceremony for the project and an invitation will be
sent out shortly to all Friends of the Trust. We hope you will be able to join us and celebrate this momentous moment which could never have happened without your support.

We still have a large shortfall in the building costs due to increased building and
material costs so we hope you will all encourage other members of the Tourism
Industry to support us by becoming a Friend of the TCD Trust in 2010 and making the
dream come true for the community of Hanover Park !

Dear Friends of the TCD Trust,

2009 has been a fantastic year for the TCD Trust. We have made tremendous progress on the BLOMVLEI PROJECT, with construction set to begin in early 2010 !

We would like to thank all friends for their valued support and commitment through the years. We could not realise any of our dreams without you. Congratulations!

We are very excited as we begin building Phase 1 of Blomvlei project in January 2010. This will be the community library and educational garden. The center will provide a place of safety, inspiration and education to the community

The design of the buildings is to include as many cost effective sustainable construction methods and materials as possible. The design will enable the facilities to maintain heat in the winter without costly heating and be cool in the summer months without air conditioning. Rain water storage tanks will also be installed to catch water run off from the roof and gutters

The building contractor will also be recruiting people from the local community who have building skills to help with the construction of the center.

We have sourced various companies and NGO who will also be supplying the school with trees, an educational garden, vegetable garden and a recycling depot.

“Schools must become centers of community life”

Programs which we will work with local NGO’s to implement at the Library will include:

• Literacy development
• Thinking skills
• Business Life Skills
• Career Guidance and exposure to career opportunities.

We have also incorporated into the project plans to help the school generate funds and to incorporate the local community :

• Employment of local community with building skills during the building.
• Recycling depot on the school premises
• Food Tents – vegetable tents for growing produce to use and sell.

To date we have raised over R2 million Rand for phase 1 and even though our budget is still short of the total building costs we have decided to go ahead in good faith and start the building process. We will continue to fund raise during construction and hopefully come up with the shortfall in our budget. We appeal to everyone in the tourism industry to support this project and help us to raise the funds required to complete it.Your donation towards this project could help us to start to make a difference to the community of Hanover Park.

We seek donations of any size, private or corporate, for the balance of our funding for phase 1, the Library and educational garden, of this project.

“Creating a variety of secure, sheltered, meaningful and inspirational spaces.”

What is our call to action for 2010 ?

1. SECURE SUFFICIENT FUNDS TO MAKE THE DREAM COME TRUE.

2. ENCOURAGE ALL MEMBERS OF THE TOURISM INDUSTRY TO JOIN AS FRIENDS OF THE TRUST AND SUPPORT THE GOOD WORK WE DO.

3. GET THE COMMUNITY, PARENTS AND CHILDREN INVOLVED.

On behalf of myself and the trustees (Enver, Di, Lisa and Andre) we wish you all a happy festive season and all the best for the year ahead.

2010 promises to be a big year for the TCD Trust and South Africa!

All the best,

Bronwen Wetton
Trust Manager

Cape Town Tourism Team South, together with a number of Cape Town Tourism members, had a fun-filled, jam-packed networking function on Wednesday, November 11 at Rondevlei Nature Reserve, just 15 minutes’ drive from the city centre.

The setting was ideal and although the weather threatened to derail our plans, we were able to go ahead with our activities.

Joy Bennett of Imvubu Nature Tours was a gracious host and she, together with the Cape Town Tourism staff, had put together an informative, interactive self-guided 45-minute walk. Most of the function’s attendees had never been to Rondevlei before and were delighted by what they found.Rondevlei is managed by the City of Cape Town and has a dedicated team of staff and interns who manage the area sensitively and responsibly. The area is home to eight hippos, some unique vegetation and roughly 230 bird species.

Our intrepid walkers were encouraged to look, listen, smell and touch – all under the watchful eye of Joy. We challenged the members to return with some hippo dung, which we got in abundance – with some droppings of the Cape clawless otter sneaked in among the lot! It made for a most fascinating dung lecture.

Then it was on to more serious stuff: we looked at a case study of a local fishing community in India that showed just how damaging irresponsible tourism development can be. This particular community, once a happy, self- sustainable community, where rice and fishing were the main industries, ended up a sex tourism destination in a relatively short time.Because the initial development lacked vision, was not subjected to environmental impact assessments and was bogged down in corruption and greed, the community did not benefit at all from tourism but was instead plunged into abject poverty, with mothers and daughters eventually resorting to prostitution to sustain their families.

We also looked at sex tourism and child prostitution in South Africa and Cape Town, and examined how the tourism industry could be involved in various ways to assist and support lobby groups, and international and local organisations.

TheCode.org is an international code for the global tourism industry that encourages tourism businesses, organisations and governments to inform and educate residents and visitors. Molo Songololo is a Cape Town-based non-governmental organisation that works in the field of protection of children’s rights and the Tourism Community Development Trust (TCD Trust) is supported by our local tourism industry through the Friends of the TCD Trust programme. The Trust has done some amazing projects in various communities around Cape Town.

We were privileged to have the Trust’s Bronwen Wetton talk about its latest project in Hanover Park, where a local school has been earmarked for the development of a multi-purpose educational and recreational centre – keeping children off the streets after school and thus reducing the lure of gangsterism and drugs. The project is huge and members were encouraged to support it, either through donations or in kind.
One of our tour operator members, Arlene Hermanus of Shiya Afrika Tours, sprang into action immediately and is offering her services as a storyteller for the soon-to-be built library!

Finally, furthering the theme of safety and security, new Cape Town Tourism member Guest Alert presented its product to us. The product aims to protect the industry against unscrupulous visitors by creating a database of reported bilkers, thieves, scam artists etc. This will be a very useful tool, with real-time reports available to subscribers to the service.

We then got down to some serious eats and drinks, and some productive networking – in true Cape Town fashion!

THE SOLI PHILANDER SHOW 11 November 2009 1:35 PM
The TCD Trust was formed in 2004 by 4 players in the tourism industry, who, recognizing the tremendous need for help in many disadvantaged areas, teamed up in a bid to unify the efforts of the tourism industry and maximize effectiveness in bringing the benefits of the tourism to the community at large.
Each of the trustees has been personally involved, in a hands-on capacity, with various community projects and after chatting about these projects, comparing notes and sharing their frustrations, they decided that it made perfect sense to pool their efforts;resources and to form a legal body to take these efforts to greater hights.
Since its creation, the Trust represents a growing number of companies: the Friends of the Trust.

Up till now the Trust has accomplished 4 big projects:

Masikhule Home Crèche
Baphumelele Educare Centre
Rosalia’s Soup Kitchen
Respite Home For Infected Children.

Today Soli spoke to founding member from the trust, Enver Mally about their next initiative, Blomvlei Multipurpose Center to be built on the grounds of Blomvlei Primary School. The reason for this, says Enver is that schools must be the centers of community life.
Initiated in response to Blomvlei Primary School’s expression of need through the 567 Cape Talk’s “Silence the Violence” campaign in 2005, the purpose of the project is to build a multi-purpose facility on the premises of the Blomvlei Primary School grounds in Hanover Park. Facing the threat of violence and drug, the community of Hanover Park stands amongst the most vulnerable communities in South Africa. The school is the door to the future of this community. The learners of the school are the primary beneficiaries of the multi-purpose facility. We are looking at opening the facility to the broader community.

The Facility will include:
Library / Media Resource Centre – building starts in January 2010
Central Hall & Indoor Recreation Area
Conference, seminar, meeting, training room
Catering Kitchen
Outdoor Recreation & Sports Area, Two soccer fields have already been planted.

The design of the buildings is to include as many cost effective sustainable construction methods and materials as possible. The design will enable the facilities to maintain heat in the winter without costly heating and be cool in the summer months without air conditioning. Rain water storage tanks will also be installed to catch water run off from the roof and gutters.

The TCD Trust will also be recruiting people from the local community who have building skills to help with the construction of the center. They’ve contacted and sourced various companies and NGO who will also be supplying the school with trees, an educational garden, vegetable garden and a recycling depot.

We are very excited about our on air interview today on Cape Talk Radio between 1.30 pm – 2pm on the Soli Philander show, please try and listen to it if you can. Enver Mally, our Trustee, and Dawn Petersen, headmistress of Blomvlei Primary School, will be interviewed on air and talking about the TCD Trust and our current project at Blomvlei Primary School in Hanover Park.

We are hoping to raise sufficient funds to complete phase one of the multi-purpose center which is the Library. We begin building in January 2010.

Where : Grand Daddy Hotel, 38 Long Street, Cape Town
Who : Friends of the TCD Trust
Why : Celebrate World Responsible Tourism Day

We look forward to seeing our Friends of the TCD Trust and celebrating together
our achievements in responsible tourism.

Make Christmas matter this year by giving a TCD Trust Christmas Gift Certificate. An easy, but effective, way of giving you the opportunity to buy an alternative gift – a gift that will actually change lives for good. With the knowledge that your gift can make a significant difference in the lives of others who have very little, it’s worth considering making a difference this year with your Christmas gifts to employees, clients, friends and family.

Make the holidays a little more sustainable, and you can rest easy, knowing that your gift will have a positive impact.

“We could start to make a difference”

After receiving your donation to the TCD Trust we will E-mail a certificate to your clients, friends or family with your company or person’s name on the certificate and the amount which you have donated on their behalf to the TCD Trust. You can also add your own personal message to the certificate.

The TCD Trust will start building our current project, The Blomvlei Primary School Multi
Purpose Center in Hanover Park in January 2010 and we need everyone in the tourism industry to support us and help us to make the dream for this community come true.

Hanover Park on the Cape Flats is a barren place with double story hostel type accommodation with limited amenities, basic services and no meaningful green community spaces. This area suffers the consequences of high unemployment, drug, gang and gun related crime and violence, affecting the people and children living in these communities. Through design workshops with Blomvlei teachers and parents it is clear that they are committed to creating a new possibilities for the communitiy and children of Blomvlei school, beyond the constraints of their immediate enviroment.

The Blomvlei Multipurpose Community Center will be a place of inspiration, safety and learning for the community of Hanover Park. Your donation towards this project could help us to start to make a difference.

You can buy Christmas Gift Certificates in bulk, and they are available in amounts to suit any budget from R50.00 upwards.

The TCD Trust Christmas Gift Certificates are available so place your order today by contacting us : Email : info@tcdtrust.org.za

Happy Giving and all the best,

The TCD Trust
” Bringing the benefits of tourism back to Grass Roots.”</p>