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The task of this portfolio is to manage
the day to day running of the centre
together with some outreach programmes.
The centre is utilized by both full time
tenants and casual/adhoc users.
Centre Revenues
Income to the centre comprises of casual
and adhoc facility bookings, permanent
rentals and administrative functions such
as telephone, fax, photocopying and C.V.
typing.
Over this past year casual and adhoc
bookings have been both regular and varied
and the Centre continues to have a high
occupancy of its permanent offices.
Photocopying, faxing and C.V. typing
continued to be popular with a particular
increase during January and February due
to more people becoming involved in Job
Search.
We would like to thank those tenants who
have been on time with their rentals.
Part of our income every quarter has been
reimbursed to council and the continued
and timely support from our tenants
enables us to meet these responsibilities.
Casual and Adhoc Facility Bookings
The centre during the course of the year
was used by a variety of people and
organisations. It was used for meetings,
church services, training, weddings,
pension payments, workshops, arts and
cultural events, entertainment, night
vigils, presentations towards selling of
products/services. All these activities
were responsible in assisting Alexsan to
be occupied, utilized and vibrant for the
purposes of addressing the varied needs
encountered by the community of Alexandra.
Issues addressed by these organisations
range from Training and Development,
Housing, Counselling, Education, Health,
Employment, Business, Human Rights,
Religious/Spiritual, Political Education,
African Rituals, Economic issues, Safety
and Security, Entertainment, Culture,
Performing Arts and Heritage, Social
Well-Being, Dissemination of Information
from a variety of NGO’s and different
government departments.
The period has been challenging in terms
of the day to day managing of the centre
space. We have endeavoured to provide our
clients with clean and tidy facilities and
at certain times we have gone the extra
mile by assisting them not only with what
they want but also providing additional
resources.
Permanent Tenants
1.1
City Power
About 100 ?200 people come on a daily
basis to buy electricity. They operate
from 08:00 until 18:00 weekdays and from
08:00 to 13:00 weekends. Information on
electricity safety is also provided to the
community.
1.2
Martin’s Funerals
They
are a funeral and burial service. About
10 ?15 people a day visit the office.
1.3
Research of Human Rights, Environment
and Development (RHREDI)
36
people are seen on a daily basis and this
organisation runs Outreach Projects for
education, awareness counselling,
advocacy, lobbying, mobilisation, gender
equality, referrals, development and
support for emerging small organisations.
They also do door to door and street
campaigns on HIV/AIDS, TB, STI’s. They
participate in national health events,
world AIDS campaigns and job creation for
the community.
1.4
Kelly Temp
This is a recruitment, training and
facilitating agency. They also get
involved in special projects involving
anything from 30 to 400 candidates at a
time. They provide two weeks intensive
training in their computer studio for 16
candidates at a time on an ongoing basis.
About 50 people visit their office daily.
1.5
ALX.Fm
The Radio Station has not been operational
this year due to problems incurred with
their license. One of their offices has
been rented out, but the radio studio and
one office has been retained. They are
hoping to be on air again later in the
2006 year.
1.6
Life Line
This office handles:
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Face to Face counselling
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Outreach programmes
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Telephonic counselling
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Referrals
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Meetings and networking with NGO’s
A total of 1949 contacts were made during
the course of the past year.
1.7
Dr. Essack Mitha
Up to 30 patients attend in a day. They
render private medical care at a price
that is affordable to all. They treat
patients for diabetes, asthma,
hypertension, influenza, STD’s etc.
Cholesterol treatment is freely available
for the elderly, both male and female
between the years 55 and above.
1.8 African National Congress
Up to 80 people can visit the office in a
day. The office is run to service the
local membership. It is also a meeting
place for the alliance partners e.g.
COSATU, SACP, ANC Youth League and ANC
Veterans. The campaigns run by the ANC
include Back to School, skills
development, special legacy projects,
AIDS/HIV programmes and helping the
homeless people.
1.9 Alexsan Tuck-shop
The tuck-shop provides meals, quarter
slices, chips and snacks. They are
particularly busy during oldies week,
otherwise they service the centre on a day
to day basis. From time to time they also
receive some outside work.
1.10 Bosele Tours
Bosele Tours started after the closure of
the larger Alexsan Youth Office, where one
of its members after extensive involvement
in the tourism portfolio decided to set up
his own business.
1.11 Rates Office
This is run by council and collects
monthly rates and rentals from the
community. It is particularly useful
during oldies week as once paid the oldies
can immediately make their payments.
1.12 Heritage Office
The Heritage Office has been involved in
research on Alex. They are also building
the Mandela Heritage Museum at 7th
Avenue
1.13…Tourism Office
This office has been involved in the
training of tour guides and giving out
information on Alexandra.
1.14 Imagination Lab
Imagination Lab is now into their third
year with the centre. They use one office
for their computer work and the larger
training room for their creative work.
They run a one year course for
approximately 20 to 25 students covering
advertising, marketing and market
research. At the end of last year they
held an exhibition in the courtyard
exhibiting the works they had achieved
during the course of the year.
1.15 Alex Chamber of Commerce
Up to 100 people visit this office and
they give business advice, business skills
and make referrals. They are also
involved in business-to-business linkages
and development. A social development and
greening project is underway in wards 75
and 108 and environmental education has
been undertaken in both wards. Trees have
been planted in schools, churches,
community centres, three old age homes and
youth centres.
1.16 All Pay
All Pay handles the old age pensions,
disability grants and child support
grants. They use the facility for the
first seven working days of the month and
approximately 750 people come through our
doors each day.
1.17 Local Business Development
The internal revamping of the facility has
recently been completed. We are still
waiting for the new team to begin. The
focus is to provide a one stop service for
those wishing to either extend their
existing business or to start up their own
new business.
1.18 Alexsan Kopano Educational Trust
Apart from adhoc project work, the
Educational Trust is particularly involved
in computer literacy. 460 students were
trained in computer literacy during the
past year. The Work Skills programme
includes both Computer Technology and
Business Fundamentals. Day, night and
Saturday morning classes are conducted.
Reception Area
Our hands-on-training at the reception
takes a period of three months for two
trainees at a time. These trainees learn
how to answer the telephone, type
documents (thus helping to increase their
speed), make photocopies and faxing for
customers. They do exercises which
exposes them to handling cash and be
accountable, how to handle customers and
help solve their problems and how to refer
customers to other projects within Alexsan
Kopano. We are proud that our trainees
have received temporary or permanent
employment as receptionists or call centre
agents in and around Sandton and Randburg,
while others are furthering their studies.
As an income generating area the reception
is involved in photocopying, faxing and
typing of documents.
South African Youth Day
Up to thirty young people participated in
the meetings, which exposed them to
challenges that needed planning, creative
thinking, teamwork, programming,
implementing and evaluation.
The theme of the event for this year was
“South African Youth celebrating and
creating opportunities for themselves and
benefiting during the 10 years of
democracy? and the aims of this event
were:
-
Invite youth groups/individuals to
showcase their talents, thus celebrating
the first 10 years of democracy.
-
To arrange for incentives, that will be
given to the participating
groups/individuals as tokens of
appreciation.
-
To arrange a platform for youth
groups/individuals who own small
businesses/ projects/initiatives to
display their products/services with the
purpose of marketing themselves and/or
disseminating information and selling
their products
The following venues were used for the
different events:
-
The amphitheatre was used for Drama,
Traditional Dance, Clowns and Poetry.
-
The courtyard was used for Youth
Business and Projects, Crafts and Art,
Information for the youth from NGO’s and
CBO’s.
-
The main hall was used for Rap Music,
different Jives/Dances, Kwaito Music,
Dance Groups and Hip Hop music.
-
Activity Room 1 upstairs hosted the June
16th Business Workshop.
About 300 young people and young adults
attended the workshop which was run by
Local Business Skills. Catering and
certificates of participation were given
to those who attended. The T-shirts,
caps and certificates were sponsored by
Elements Marketing and Advertising and
City Power.
Alexsan Kopano Educational Trust donated
funds to the event. This money was used
to buy groceries, vegetables and meat to
feed the performing groups and the
planning sub-committees and to pay for the
public address system. T-shirts and
certificates were given to each group that
performed. Thank you letters were written
to those who donated. 49 youth groups
presented items that ranged from Kwaito,
Rap, Dance, Poetry, Music and Drama.
Carols by Candlelight
This annual event is popular. It is
attended by children between the ages of 5
to 16 years of age and word-of-mouth gave
about 800 children the opportunity to
attend this event.
The music was provided by the Alexandra
Adult Choir under Mr. Pat Smith and the
Alexandra Youth Orchestra was comprised of
students who get tuition every Saturday at
the
Alexandra College.
Catering was provided for the choir and
the 800 children received the customary
chocolates/sweets from Father Christmas.
Acknowledgements
I would like to conclude this report by
thanking all the staff members,
management, tenants, clients, Community
Based Organizations, Churches and various
government departments for supporting the
Centre.
We would like to particularly thank the
City of Johannesburg Region 7 for
continuing to support the centre and its
operations.
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