The model of CODAH is from the Christian inspiration to bring shalom (wholeness and peace) to the community, especially to the broken and the lost. Therefore, we offer services with compassion and take care of the sick and the vulnerable. Our goal is to reach the whole family unit; we believe in the potential of the young people and our goal is to help them so that they can help themselves and create their own income. Therefore, we are steering toward empowering and creating wealth. Another important part of our strategy is to work close together with others, such as the health department and other entities including several businesses in Hammarsdale.
Below you see an overview of all the projects we are currently running:
The bakery
The bakery is one of our most needed projects in the community as it provides a basic and necessary thing called bread! We bake around 200 loaves to feed around 100 people two times a week. With this bakery we both provide the basic needs but also train people the skill of baking.
We are so thankful for the generous gifts of Mr. Price. Multiple times in a year they pass by to bring all the ingredients for baking bread for free! Together with our volunteers we try to be as cost effective as possible.
The vegetable garden
On our property in the beautiful hills of Hammarsdale we planted a vegetable garden where people from the community get trained to grow their own vegetables. We both train people but also share the harvest among the people. We are so blessed by many companies within South-Africa who come by to donate to this project and even help us how to sustain this amazing garden. There are much opportunities to extend this garden with some trees etc.
Our crops including, sweet potatoes, beans, potatoes, cabbage and corn was a very big success because we managed to keep more seeds to plant this year. This enables us to feed more people. We roughly feed about 350 families with the proceeds of the gardening project.
Sowing class
In our sewing class we daily train people the skill of making clothes. We do this in several shifts during the day. The people go through a training program of fifteen weeks in where they get skilled how to do the job.
Hammarsdale is surrounded by several textile companies. Over the years they got to know about our skills centre. Since then we have an agreement where people from our sowing class get a job offer after they finished our class and got their certificate. Such an amazing collaboration between our skill centre and textile companies!
Cash for trash
Cash for trash is a recycling project that started in november 2023. This project makes it available for EVERYONE to provide for themselves and their families. No longer do people have to go to bed hungry. The only thing they need to do is pick up some trash from the street during the day, put it in a trashbag and deliver it at our Codah base.
We are currently recycling 600 bags of plastic in a month! Even small kids of only seven years old are bringing trashbags to get themselves some porridge to survive the week. Just imagine a community getting cleaner and cleaner and people with a smile on their face! You can become the most important link in our project, follow the link to our cash for trash website!
Dignity centre
With the diginity centre project we bring awareness among teenagers about Sex, HIV, pregnancies and healthy relationships. We also take care of pregnant teenage girls. With our mobile clinic we go into the communities and schools to reach out to these girls. In our clinic we can check the health status of the mom to-be and the little baby and give them the necessary information they need.
We also run campaigns at schools and on our own property to bring awareness and give information about sex and HIV-Aids. We also run mother and baby campaigns to help teenage mothers with raising up their babies.
Schoolprogram
Our schoolprogram contains a computerclass and English school. In our computerclass we teach both children and adults how to work on a computer. We teach them the basic skills like writing an application letter for a certain job.
On a Saturday, more than 60 kids come by to attend computer class. We divide them in groups of 12 kids and change groups every hour. All the facilities offered at the computer training center are completely free of charge. We do more than computer skill training: some kids stay the whole day! we make sure there is bread for them to take home and a sandwich as well as soccer balls and other toys available for them after their classes have ended.
Our English lesson school program contains several difficulty levels. Many people from the slums haven’t learned the English language. We both train them in speaking and writing English. This whole school program gives people way more changes in finding a job to provide for their families.
