I grew up in community where everyone was involved with some activity. As I grew older I noticed that our community and communities like mine were becoming more and more dangerous. Gangs were thriving and drugs were becoming more easily available for the youth to access. While I was younger we never saw drugs. We only heard about them. The more time went by the worse things became in our little community. At first I could not understand why things were changing so drastically, a once loving caring community was now a place where people were scared to leave their homes at night because it was dangerous. Gangs were growing bigger and bigger and the gangsters were becoming younger and younger.
There were some people who were still involved in the community with feeding and soccer but nothing else was really happening inside of Ocean View.

I understood that to address the social illness inside of our community we needed an holistic approach. We needed to first honestly acknowledge what was wrong and secondly be willing to address the issues. That was the birth of the Wellness Centre. The Centre is named after my daughter Aisha. The name Cape Flats is to connect Ocean view with the rest of the Cape Flats even though it is geographically removed from the area we still experience similar challenges as a majority coloured community.

My dream is for the centre to one day have its own safe space inside of Ocean View, where we can have children pick up bread for school. There are so many kids who have to go to school without having eaten the night before and they are still expected to go to school with no lunch and learn. To have a space where children can come to after-school and just be kids. There are so many kids who have no parents or their parents are on drugs or there is alcohol abuse happening in the home or parents who just don’t care. The Centre could be a space where we can provide kids and young adults with internet to do homework and develop their talents. I believe the more we expose children to different things the more it opens their minds and helps them to grow into productive members of our communities. It can also be a space that offers learnership programs like computer skills where you can draw up your CV and look for work. We could offer courses for young adults to learn welding, carpentry, cabinet making, plumbing, electrical and building etc.

I believe this would not just restore our once loving community but it will make life our community and communities like ours a place where people would come to for these programs
Ultimately my dream would

be to have a wellness centre in satellite campuses all over the Cape Flats providing similar support.