WILD COAST FACILITY

The Earth Rising Foundation recognizes the desperate need for housing and care for abandoned children and orphans who have lost their families due to AIDS/HIV and/or who suffer from severe poverty. As one of its first projects, Earth Rising Foundation will build a day care facility on property that has already been donated to the organization in Willowvale, a small rural area of the Transkei in the Eastern Cape of South Africa that will provide support for children of the Xhosa community.

Once complete, the Wild Coast Day Care Facility will be run by the landowners, Lucas and Nobongile Sobhuwa. As caretakers, Lucas and Nobongile, who have four children of their own and currently provide support for many of their young relatives, will open up the day care to help support others in the Xhosa community. A portion of the project costs may be set aside to develop small scale enterprise upon this land, such as food growing initiatives, like raising chickens and growing vegetables. In the long run, the goal is to create a working home, shelter and day care facility with gardens that supply food and nourishment to the inhabitants and the community.

The building itself will be constructed utilizing natural building techniques and local materials, including, stone, thatch and cob, a mixture of sand, straw and clay. To construct the day care center, Earth Rising will employ locally trained labor and those who were already trained in natural building by the Earth Rising staff in Cape Town in 2006 during the construction of Lucas’ Home. The project is expected to be complete in Spring 2008.