On a visit as a tourist in a mini bus tour to the townships on the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa, Andrew Reynolds met a lady called Vicky – who runs what has to be the smallest Bed and Breakfast in the world. Situated in the township of Khayelitsha , which means in English “New Home”.
Vicky is a local entrepreneur determined to change the way her children grow up and view their place in society. Students of Andrew Reynolds Cash On Demand course who attended his O2 Andrew Reynolds Bootcamp watched video footage filmed live during the visit – where Vicky explained “ By growing up in shacks, our children will believe that because they are black they are meant to live in shacks. That is want we are trying to avoid”
In the Andrew Reynolds documentary style film, viewers then watched as Vicky showed Andrew Reynolds a project she and her community had started.
The ambitious project involved tearing down the old shacks built of wood and corrugated sheet metal – and replacing them with proper brick houses.
The shack owners had raised some money that had allowed them to start their own projects. They had dug the foundation trenches themselves, pored the concrete by hand – and had then laid bricks and installed window frames. All this time, they were living in tiny makeshift shacks erected across the road.
When Andrew Reynolds arrived at the project – work had stalled as they had run out of money. The government had promised funding – but had not come through with the cash. Vicky and her community were therefore left with part-finished houses, with no roofs on.
With a background in house building Andrew Reynolds looked through the plans with Vicky and went through the costs involved in finishing the part built houses.
Sensing the despair of the residents at having come so far but being unable to finish their new hoes, Andrew offered to help by providing some funding to finish the first 20 houses which were under construction at the time of his visit.
Andrew Reynolds wired the funds to Vicky and work began on getting the 20 houses finished.