Last Friday, 21 members of the Stellenbosch University Institute for Plant Biotechnology (IPB) braved the strong winds and set out for Sir Lowry's Pass Village to spend the day there participating in the IPB annual community outreach. The outreach day was organised by two IPB staff members, Pauliane Davids and Christell van der Vyver. With donations collected from IPB staff, postdoctoral fellows and postgraduate students, along with a subsidy kindly granted by IPB Director Prof Kossmann, we were able to sponsor the painting of three homes in the Sir Lowry's Pass community. The event was originally planned for Mandela Day in July, but bad weather forced us to postpone until spring arrived.
The day started with a visit to the Hemel-op-Aarde project. Here, we learned about the work of the Open Schools Worldwide Centre for grade RR to grade 1 learners, which provides writing, reading and mathematical support to the kids. Next, we were joined by members of the Sir Lowry's Pass Community Empowerment Project, who organised the painting of the Sir Lowry's Pass residents' homes. IPB members were split into three groups, each tasked with painting one home. Despite initial (good-natured) grumblings about who had been given the biggest house to paint and who would have to work the hardest to finish, work commenced, and finished approximately three hours later. Delroy did need five hotdogs as a reviver, and Bronwen was covered in paint. However, on the whole, everyone seemed to have survived the painting ordeal and had only a few cramping arm muscles to complain of. While painting, we were treated to running commentary from interested community members, who came to witness the activity. Tannie Annie in particular expressed her gratitude upon seeing her freshly painted house, and we had to promise a few residents that we would return next year to paint their houses also – testimony to a job well done.
Afterwards, everyone enjoyed a well-deserved drink and some hotdogs. Our team left Sir Lowry's Pass Village satisfied with the small yet positive contribution we were able to make to the well-being and upliftment of the Sir Lowry's Pass community.
The IPB would like to thank Mr Campher Serfontein for serving as coordinator on behalf of Sir Lowry's Pass Community Empowerment Project to help organise this day.
