{"id":52666,"date":"2022-08-23T12:05:50","date_gmt":"2022-08-23T10:05:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/peoplespost\/money-woes-hit-friends-of-the-liesbeek-20220823\/"},"modified":"2025-03-19T19:59:28","modified_gmt":"2025-03-19T17:59:28","slug":"money-woes-hit-friends-of-the-liesbeek-20220823","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/peoplespost\/money-woes-hit-friends-of-the-liesbeek-20220823\/","title":{"rendered":"Money woes hit Friends of the Liesbeek"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Friends of the Liesbeek (FoL) currently finds itself in the most financially precarious position in its 31 years of existence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Tuesday 16 August at the community-based, non-profit organisation\u2019s AGM held at The Vineyard Hotel in Newlands, FoL\u2019s treasurer Grant Irlam shared that they were sitting with a net deficit of over R180 000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stating that they needed \u201cto close this gap\u201d, Irlam said that this \u2013 in the face of a global recession and the financial fallout left in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic \u00ad\u2013 would be one of FoL\u2019s biggest challenges going forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got project successes. It is just a case of getting those successes out there,\u201d said Irlam, adding that they hoped to win the support of more big corporates in the coming year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Established in 1991, the aim of FoL is \u201cto create an awareness of the importance of the Liesbeek as a green corridor in an urban setting and to rehabilitate, enhance, and conserve it and its environs\u201d. With the Liesbeek stretching over 9 km, this is no small task.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A quick look at FoL\u2019s financials shows that the bulk of their expenditure goes towards the Liesbeek Maintenance Project (LMP), with the focus being on cleaning the riparian edge (the land on the banks of the river), managing and controlling alien invasive species while replanting with indigenous vegetation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At present, the team includes eight members and six interns. Also speaking at Tuesday\u2019s AGM, FoL\u2019s chair Nick Fordyce said that they could not overstate how significant the LMP\u2019s work has been.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said that, thanks to this model, not only were they able to do constructive, impactful work on the river, but they were also able to create meaningful jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTheir work often gets lumped or sort of listed under the label \u2018maintenance\u2019, but it is truly a massive contribution. How we\u2019ve been able to set up multiple community days in the form of our monthly rubbish collections and, in Observatory, our weeding, digging and planting days that we set up to go with Kevin Winter\u2019s Rosebank Canal Project, and recently our Mandela Day initiative,\u201d said Fordyce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Rosebank Canal Rehabilitation Project was launched at the beginning of the year. Funded by Future Water (an interdisciplinary research institute at the University of Cape Town), the Water Hub (a research, demonstration and training centre) and FoL, and funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the pilot project<\/a> focused on a 200 m stretch of the canal running through Rosebank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project entailed first weeding the canal and then re-designing it \u2013 reinforcing four rock weirs and flattening sediment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once all of the preparation work was done, about 1 400 Palmiet seedlings<\/a> were transferred to this section of the canal on Saturday 26 March. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During their Mandela Day initiative, over 100\u2009volunteers spent their 67 minutes assisting FoL in rehabilitating an overgrown patch of an important river corridor in Observatory (opposite The Wild Fig Restaurant). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the LMP having done most of the heavy lifting the week before \u2013 clearing the selected area alongside the river of the tenacious Kikuyu grass growing there \u2013 volunteers replanted the patch with indigenous species native to the area on Monday 19\u2009July. Commenting on Irlam\u2019s finance report, Fordyce said it was difficult to listen to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut I really want to emphasise the fact that in the last year, we\u2019ve not been able to raise the LMP team\u2019s salaries. And the significance of that in the context of the way the cost of living has gone up in the last year, it is truly horrifying. Our team continued to be loyal to our project. We are working as a committee very hard to try and address that challenge,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also commended Irlam for finding ways to keep FoL going throughout the Covid-19 pandemic years when donations dropped to their lowest in the organisation\u2019s history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFrankly, it is remarkable that we made it through them. It is proof that not all superheroes wear capes,\u201d he said. According to Fordyce, FoL\u2019s committee had begun the work to source more funders and to diversify their funding source.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are awaiting feedback on a number of applications that we submitted requests for and we are soon hoping to be registered as a beneficiary of the Woolworth\u2019s MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet card.\u201d The programme channels funding to the charity of shoppers\u2019 choice every time they shop with the retailer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continuing on this positive note, Fordyce said that even though the past couple of years had been \u201ca wild ride\u201d, what with the Cape drought, the pandemic and periods of loadshedding, it also showed our nation\u2019s resilience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve all shown remarkable resilience as South Africans, as Capetonians and as the Friends, and in my view, 2022 has represented something of a triumph. We\u2019ve been able to sort of shed that pandemic cloak that\u2019s hung over all of us and, as the Friends, we\u2019ve been able to do what we like doing \u2013 getting back to the river and making an impact.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n