SAFE AND WARM IN SOUTH AFRICA
By Tilly Grey


Prior to moving into her Habitat house in late 1998, Tiny Tebogo lived in a one-room shack that provided little protection against South Africa's harsh winters. Her story, in the February/March 1999 issue of Habitat World, described her efforts at keeping warm in a tin house with temperatures dropping to 41°F. Thankfully, by the South African winter of '99 (which comes when it is summer in America), she was warm and snug in her sturdy new Habitat house.

Orange Farm Township in South Africa is flat and crowded with shacks made from bits of wood, iron sheets and cardboard that cover the landscape in all directions. Most people-because they don't own cars-commute 45 minutes by bus to work in the capital city of Johannesburg.

Since December 1997, HFH South Africa has built 74 houses in Orange Farm Township through its Arekopaneng affiliate, which was organized by members of a co-op. Many of the Habitat homeowners are women who earn a living in Orange Farm by working at the co-op either sewing, baking, caring for more than 200 children in its pre-school, or making bricks for house construction.

Habitat homeowner Tiny Tebogo moved to Orange Farm from Soweto with her husband, Robert, in 1993. Soweto is much closer to Johannesburg, but land costs there are high, and the couple couldn't afford to buy land. So, the Tebogos moved to Orange Farm and their three children remained in Soweto with grandparents in order to attend good schools. In Orange Farm, the couple had to live in a drafty, tin house where, she says, "I used to cover my bed with plastic when it rained."

In 1996, Robert died unexpectedly, and Tebogo found herself alone in Orange Farm with little chance for improving her living conditions. But she got a job cooking for the co-op pre-school program.

Two years later, she became a Habitat homeowner and her housing plight improved dramatically. Instead of cramming furniture into one room, burning paraffin heaters to keep warm, getting water from a pipe in her yard, and walking outside to her latrine as she did of necessity in her old house, today she simply turns a handle for water, pushes a button for heat, and showers in her own indoor bathroom.

"I am so proud of Habitat and what it has done. I am also proud of myself and what I have done," Tebogo says. Her Habitat house cost $3,130 and she is up to date on her payments of $46 per month. She still works with the co-op, but no longer cooks for the pre-school. "Now, I am working with the income-generation project, using new sewing machines to make comforters for beds. We sell them in town," she says.

Although Tebogo's children remain in Soweto, she travels to see them nearly every weekend. She still hopes the two younger ones will move in with her again someday, but even if that never happens, she owns land and a good house and prays that each of her three children will be homeowners one day. She is enthusiastic about the future of South Africa and Habitat's future in her community.

"I think Orange Farm will be very nice in five years with so many more Habitat houses all with lights and sewage," she says. "Having a Habitat house makes me feel as proud as [I was] having a good husband when he was alive. It is safe here and all my neighbors watch out for each other around my house."

"I used to cover my bed with plastic when it rained."

In 1998, when Tiny Tebogo hosted writer Tilly Grey in her tin house, she said: "Next time you visit, I'll be in my new house. I just can't wait!"

Tilly Grey is Habitat for Humanity International's Africa/Middle East area correspondent.


Reprinted from Habitat World Magazine, December/January 2000.
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©1999 Habitat for Humanity International