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Park's momentum grows

The eKhaya StreetSports Group have themselves been on a year-long training course in violence prevention through soccer, courtesy of Altus Sport and GTZ. Now they are also coaching kids at nearby schools such as New Nations School.
The park is filled with kids as soon as schools close each afternoon. On Saturday mornings an organisation called the City Ambassadors use the park for karate lessons. eKhaya Park is obviously fulfilling a need for the inner city kids, who often attend schools in high-rise buildings with no sports facilities.
 
A co-operative development of the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA), the eKhaya Neighbourhood and volunteer supervisors and young adults of Hillbrow, eKhaya Park replaced an open lot that was run down ‘worse than anything I have seen before, and I’ve been around ... sewer water from six buildings was running through it’ says the indomitable Josie Adler, Co-ordinator of eKhaya.
The park has new paving, landscaping, lighting and secure fencing, and boasts a synthetic soccer field, a children's play area with safety surface, gaming tables and bins. The property owner members of the eKhaya Neighbourhood co-manage the park with City Parks and pay for its 24-hour security.

“eKhaya Park is a timely and vital capital contribution by the City in support of a growing partnership with eKhaya’s property owner members, to sustain inner city investment and regeneration after a decades-long period of neglect,” says Adler.
“eKhaya Park and now the new Orange Cruyff soccer pitch next door bring to lower Hillbrow important facilities for the first time to support the wellbeing of people living here. The new park also made possible the organizing of a Fun-Month-long series of activities for Hillbrow kids when schools are closed for the World Cup.”

The park got its name from the eKhaya Neighbourhood, whose property owner members’ desire to regenerate the area includes creating a strong sense of security and wellbeing in the area, as well as provide a clean and safe public environment residents can live, work and play.
“When there was a fire in one of the buildings recently,” says Adler, “the housing supervisor received calls from people all over the neighbourhood, and people rushed to help.”
Adler, who emphasises the term ‘social cohesion’ as a key factor in successful inner city regeneration, says “The city is our house and eKhaya Park is part of that house, so we need to value it, take care of it, protect it and love it.”

The eKhaya programme, initiated by the Johannesburg Housing Company in 2006, is being strategically engineered to improve safety, cleanliness and the renewal of Hillbrow's public environment. Members include property owners from the profit and social housing sector and the neighbourhood area now covers nearly 60 residential buildings.

It’s not easy to improve conditions in Hillbrow. The park is surrounded by hijacked buildings, and sewer water still flows across some streets. But the enthusiasm of Adler and her team in the face of daunting odds may be the factor that turns the tide of regeneration. Hats off to them.