Shift the Frame: Hermanus, ZA

We at House of Growth (HoG) believe in helping out our community. We are partnering up with Coastal Timber Mouldings (CTM), located in Hermanus (South-Africa), to realise a project we both truly believe in: giving local people who are struggling, often uneducated and marginalized, a chance to move forward by offering them training and a job.

CTM, being an established wood manufacturing firm, always has a bunch of spare wood. The goal is to train the local people the craft of carpentry, with this spare wood as a resource. We aim for them to become self-employed and self-sustained entrepreneurs, which we believe will take about 12-18 months of coaching, all depending on how they evolve.

During the training, they will be responsible for their own finished products. Each trainee will be provided a unique identity code, which will be tagged onto their individual finished products. This way, in case of future reference, the products can always be traced back to the specific individual. This will ensure that each trainee takes responsibility for their own product quality.

HoG, being a business advisory & consultancy firm, will be there for the business-side of things: help them understand what it takes to become a viable business, understanding the business environment and matters relating to setting up a business. When a trainee decides to become independent, HoG will help him through the rough patches.

Another perk of this project is that CTM will provide wood to the trainees, at a discount, when they decide to become independent, to help them get started.

It's about more than just a job, it's about giving them a sense of direction in life, a purpose. This combination enables CTM to have less waste and the people to get an education and a future.

We already have 15 trainees eager to begin the training on the 1st of March 2017, and we have also found a decent property nearby CTM, but it still needs some more work done. Of course, there are other costs to account for, such as machinery, wages, training hours etc.

Being father and son, CTM and HoG are both equally dedicated to the project. We do not want to make this a one-time project, but we want to engage ourselves in this for many more years to come. We need to shift the frame: Let's stop putting people into boxes, talent and dedication is everywhere!

We have already approached private investors as well as government funding programs, but because of the size of the project ánd because we want to create worldwide awareness for these community projects, we want you involved!

If you believe in our project, even just half as much as we do, please do not hesitate to contribute! All small amounts make up to a big whole!

Keep posted via our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/Shifttheframe