Act 2: Moving Forward Through Collaboration

Scene Summaries:

Scene 1: Complexities of the First Major Reblocking Process – 11.6.12

Working in such a new partnership environment provided a handful of challenges to all parties involved.  To make the issues even more complicated, the level of access to technology and working spaces of each partner varied significantly.  It became one of the main points to address for our team in fully understanding the resources, needs, and constraints of each partner helping to improve Mtshini Wam prior to making our own changes in the community.  In doing so, we began to more clearly define the gaps currently existing in the reblocking process, in order for a healthier partnership to emerge and more opportunity for our group to make a difference.  However, this was much more easily said than done.

Scene 2: Meeting With The City, CORC, and ISN – 11.9.12

Meeting at the City of Cape Town with ISN and CORC.

In order to establish the beginnings of a healthier partnership and answer some of our burning questions, we were thankfully invited to a meeting at the City of Cape Town’s Civic Centre to meet with the Department of Human Settlements, Community Organisation Resource Centre, and the Informal Settlement Network.  We were introduced as a piece of this partnership at the beginning of the meeting, which helped us gain contacts in each of the organisations in attendance.  Primarily attending as observers to some of the main issues at hand, we discovered that these issues included a constraint on human and financial resources, a lack of centralized communication systems, and the lack of complete understanding for delegation of responsibilities involved.

Scene 3: First Meeting with Stephen Lamb – 11.12.12

One of the main sponsors for the WPI Cape Town Project Centre in 2012 was Touching The Earth Lightly (TTEL), an organization furthering the mission of job creation and conservation to urban settings.  The leader of TTEL, Stephen Lamb, was interested in the possibilities of informal settlement gardening and shack lighting within Mtshini Wam.  During our first meeting with Stephen, he introduced the ideas of vertical gardening on the sides of shacks as well as the Litre of Light project for each of these possibilities.  Quickly collaborating on the feasibility for these efforts, the details of logistics, cost analysis, and timeline were covered in this gathering.