"Like a child that has new clothes, I feel like jumping, I am so happy that eventually we have a hall. I still can’t believe it, it still feels like a dream," says Nonceba Balisi, a KwaNdwanyama resident.
The construction of the new village hall was funded by Action-Aid, an organisation based in the United Kingdom that helps Africa fight against poverty.
"Like a child that has new clothes, I feel like jumping, I am so happy that eventually we have a hall. I still can’t believe it, it still feels like a dream," says Nonceba Balisi, a KwaNdwanyama resident.
The construction of the new village hall was funded by Action-Aid, an organisation based in the United Kingdom that helps Africa fight against poverty.
The organisation donated R450 000 on building a hall for KwaNdwayana village 50km from Peddie in the Fort Beautfort direction.
This is not all that Action-Aid has done for the residents of the village, they also ‘donated’ their sweat in the form of labour, as they’re also helping build the hall itself.
On Monday, 14 September Action-Aid volunteers arrived at KwaNdwayana, where they were warmly welcomed, with school children dancing, singing cultural songs and reciting poems. After the welcoming they were served a meal of traditional Xhosa dishes.
One of the Action-Aid volunteers Jenine Goddard says, "I am really glad we’re building this because they really needed it, there was about 60 to 70 people squashing in a small room and now they will have a bigger room."
The volunteers said they will be spending the rest of the week in the village while they help building the hall. They are hoping that the work will be almost done by the time they leave.
KwaNdaywana residents say that had it not been for Action-Aid workers, they would still have no hall because the municipality has been bypassing them as all the other villages around them already have halls.
Now that their wish of owning a hall has been fulfilled, the villagers are now hoping that some day out of the 18 villages in the Peddie area, they will also own a library.
"It has been always our prayer and wish that someday we have a hall, I don’t know whether I should laugh or cry, I am thrilled!" Balisi exclaimed.
