Gallery Update
MELKHOUTFONTEIN NEWS - The Dreamcatcher Foundation together with the local community launched the Arts for Humanity project on Sunday 4 March.
The event took place in the restored historic St. Augustine's Church, situated on the newly developed 'La Bloemen' indigenous botanical garden developed on a former waste dumpsite.
Art by the children of Melkhoutfontein welcomed the visitors and tourists and is being exhibited in the church.
Over the last year, Dreamcatcher's 'Going Places Kids', have created amazing artwork from the waste removed from the site and their environment under the auspices of their art teacher, Diane Rossouw.
Click here for a photo gallery.
The cornerstone of a monument, a mosaic named 'Rising from the Ashes' and created from waste from this former dumpsite, was laid in the garden.
This is all part of the 'Wasteland - Graced Land' project which has recently been recognized globally as a best practice sustainable model for poverty relief and environmental management projects.
According to the Dreamcatcher Foundation's founder, Anthea Rossouw, the 'Wasteland - Graced Land' model is geared to provide solutions to local problems using local resources as far as possible to created sustainable work.
This project blends tourism and environmental sustainability with helpfulness by introducing a new, meaningful tourist visitor destination with the chance for visitors to engage and get involved with the locals to innovate and create together locally.
The project is an integrated model for sustainable development, consists of various integrated sub-projects including 'Paint Up with Kamamma' where 350 houses in Melkhoutfontein will be beautified through artistic representations of the history and lifestyle of the local people.
About 20 houses have already been painted by international visitors as part of the projects 'Gobal Artists in Residence for Humanity'.
The artists stay in the community while working on various integrated projects.
The Dreamcatchers Kids Project with the artwork in the church forms another sector, while the needlework done by the women in town is incorporated into the Crafting for Humanity leg. 'TrendyTrash', the botanical garden and a planned book about the people of Melkhoutfontein are all part of the project.
Rossouw, recently cited as one of the top Social Innovators Globally to address challenges of poverty, environmental and socio-economic growth, stated that these projects are aimed to not only uplift in Melkhoutfontein, but to enhance the current offering of Hessequa as a tourist destination to rise tourism, jobs and enterprises to grow the local economy.
Visitors and interested parties can contact the Dreamcatcher Foundation through the website on their contact form on www.dreamcatchersouthafrica.com.
ARTICLE & PHOTOS: ELZA THIART-BOTES, SUID-KAAP FORUM KORRESPONDENT
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