WEBVTT - On the couch: New craft school set for Cape Town opening next year 0:00:00.400 --> 0:00:02.360 Just before I went off on leave, one of our 0:00:02.400 --> 0:00:05.080 listeners tipped me off about an exciting new program that 0:00:05.240 --> 0:00:08.880 is seeking to tap into South Africa's very rich tradition 0:00:09.000 --> 0:00:13.640 of artisanal craftsmanship and also to create employment opportunities for 0:00:13.720 --> 0:00:18.320 unemployed youth. The concept is Craft School South Africa and 0:00:18.360 --> 0:00:21.919 it envisages a series of campuses around the country where 0:00:22.000 --> 0:00:25.680 learners can be trained in practical crafting skills as well 0:00:25.720 --> 0:00:29.600 as softer skills if you like, emotional intelligence, business management, 0:00:29.640 --> 0:00:32.319 the kind of tools that will help them to make 0:00:32.360 --> 0:00:35.159 a living after they graduate. And I want to say 0:00:35.159 --> 0:00:37.280 thank you to our listener Andre for alerting us to 0:00:37.360 --> 0:00:39.840 this concept and the fact that it is in its 0:00:39.880 --> 0:00:43.159 fledgling stages. It's my huge pleasure to have with us 0:00:43.159 --> 0:00:46.920 today the founder of Craft Schools South Africa, Justin van Brada, 0:00:47.000 --> 0:00:49.839 who is joining us via zoom. If the name is familiar, 0:00:49.920 --> 0:00:52.559 you are obviously a designed guru of some sorts. You'll know. 0:00:53.040 --> 0:00:56.360 Justin is a highly acclaimed interior and furniture designer with 0:00:56.440 --> 0:00:59.720 over twenty five years experience in the design industry. He's 0:00:59.720 --> 0:01:02.680 worked both in South Africa and in London. He's been 0:01:02.760 --> 0:01:06.560 involved in craft based startups before but this concept is 0:01:06.560 --> 0:01:09.119 on a whole different level, and it's a great pleasure 0:01:09.120 --> 0:01:11.120 to have Justin with us to tell us more about 0:01:11.200 --> 0:01:13.639 the vision and where it stemmed from. Justin from Brudau, 0:01:13.680 --> 0:01:14.520 Welcome to Cape Talk. 0:01:15.560 --> 0:01:17.080 Thanks Papa, Thanks very much for having me. 0:01:17.120 --> 0:01:19.440 It's a pleasure. Just before we talk about the vision 0:01:19.520 --> 0:01:21.200 for a craft school, let's just talk a little bit 0:01:21.200 --> 0:01:24.199 about your own journey, Justin. The calling to a life 0:01:24.200 --> 0:01:27.320 in design and making and creating beautiful things, is that 0:01:27.360 --> 0:01:29.440 something that sort of goes back as far as you 0:01:29.440 --> 0:01:31.640 can remember. Tell us a about your own journey. 0:01:32.680 --> 0:01:33.319 Yeah, I think so. 0:01:34.760 --> 0:01:38.040 It wasn't a route I followed when I studied after school. 0:01:38.080 --> 0:01:41.320 I went to Stellenbosch and started with law and then 0:01:41.400 --> 0:01:43.480 dropped that, and then moved economics and dropped that, and 0:01:43.520 --> 0:01:46.680 I ended up studying politics and English, and. 0:01:48.160 --> 0:01:49.160 After that I went to. 0:01:49.960 --> 0:01:52.200 Design time It's Good of interior design and kept on 0:01:52.840 --> 0:01:57.280 which pretty much changed my life and the whole trajectory 0:01:57.320 --> 0:02:00.840 of it. It was fun by a woman called Joland 0:02:00.880 --> 0:02:03.120 Mitten who serves on the board of the Craft School now, 0:02:03.720 --> 0:02:09.560 and he's one of those women who runs a very consistent, nurturing, 0:02:10.280 --> 0:02:14.920 rigorous program and it trained me to being then trained 0:02:14.960 --> 0:02:20.120 me to persevere, I think, to finish things, but also 0:02:20.240 --> 0:02:25.600 to understand about the balance of nurturing and hard work. 0:02:26.960 --> 0:02:30.200 And it's kind of you know, listen to your story, 0:02:30.480 --> 0:02:34.000 be heard, now, sit down and do the work. Is 0:02:34.040 --> 0:02:35.960 the sort of ethos there which is amazing, and that 0:02:35.960 --> 0:02:38.600 it really did guide the course of my life, right 0:02:38.840 --> 0:02:40.639 And I then went to London on a kind of 0:02:40.639 --> 0:02:44.200 a gap year that that's kind of never never ended. 0:02:44.240 --> 0:02:47.120 I ended up being in the UK for twenty five years. 0:02:47.639 --> 0:02:50.480 Okay, now, justin obviously making a name for yourself with 0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:52.720 your own design work. But that that what you've just 0:02:52.720 --> 0:02:56.799 said about the ethos, that that combination of the nurturing, 0:02:56.919 --> 0:03:00.720 the recognition of the emotional needs and the person and 0:03:00.760 --> 0:03:04.200 their aspirations, but combined with the realities of what is 0:03:04.240 --> 0:03:07.080 needed to succeed, that perseverance, the willingness to hard work. 0:03:07.280 --> 0:03:10.320 I know that those are core to what you envisage 0:03:10.360 --> 0:03:13.960 for the craft school concept as well. But you're also 0:03:14.040 --> 0:03:18.639 incredibly passionate about the importance of preserving traditional craft skills. 0:03:19.240 --> 0:03:21.880 Perhaps before we say anymore, we should try and more 0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:27.000 precisely define what you mean by craftsmanship and craft skills. 0:03:27.400 --> 0:03:29.160 Because some people sort of write that offer as oh, 0:03:29.160 --> 0:03:32.320 well that's netting or doing beadwork or something to pass 0:03:32.360 --> 0:03:35.080 the time as a hobby. You've got a much broader 0:03:35.120 --> 0:03:37.280 sense of the concept of craft and how you want 0:03:37.280 --> 0:03:39.080 to apply it in this context, do you want to explain? 0:03:40.320 --> 0:03:43.560 Yes, So it is that whole thing, as you say, 0:03:43.640 --> 0:03:46.360 you know, and it's very unpopular to. 0:03:46.400 --> 0:03:48.520 Go and learn to do. 0:03:49.960 --> 0:03:52.360 What people see as a traditional craft because they remember 0:03:52.360 --> 0:03:54.320 their grandmother are sitting in a staying machine all their lives, 0:03:55.640 --> 0:03:59.400 as opposed to know something sexy. So the sexy crafts 0:03:59.400 --> 0:04:03.880 are like blowing and beautiful ceramics and beautiful leatherwork and 0:04:03.920 --> 0:04:08.760 things like that, whereas crafting is made by hand, and 0:04:08.800 --> 0:04:15.720 there's the wonderful Italian craft institution called homer Faber, which 0:04:15.760 --> 0:04:21.039 is basically man made is the literal translation, and that 0:04:21.160 --> 0:04:24.080 is exactly what it is. And so what we are 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:27.120 going to be teaching is a series of different crafts. 0:04:26.680 --> 0:04:28.640 That are made by hand. 0:04:28.720 --> 0:04:33.640 And if you look around your home, it is something 0:04:33.800 --> 0:04:38.400 useful that is made beautifully by hand. So it's not 0:04:38.480 --> 0:04:40.839 just your beautiful ceramic vase, but it's your piece of furniture, 0:04:40.880 --> 0:04:44.960 it's your your you're you know, you're if you live 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:49.400 in an old place, your pipework and your boiler could 0:04:49.400 --> 0:04:50.880 be a handmade item. 0:04:51.360 --> 0:04:53.440 And so so there. 0:04:53.320 --> 0:04:56.640 Is this whole there's this whole education that we're trying 0:04:56.680 --> 0:05:01.880 to bring back of these beautifully made, useful items have 0:05:01.960 --> 0:05:06.120 a value. There's an economic need for them. There is 0:05:06.120 --> 0:05:08.320 an economic need for us to make locally more in 0:05:08.360 --> 0:05:12.359 South Africa, because even for the bigger companies who have 0:05:12.480 --> 0:05:15.120 been importing for years, they've realized that if we're not 0:05:15.600 --> 0:05:18.640 making in this country, we don't have anyone to buy 0:05:18.680 --> 0:05:22.000 anything in this country, and the whole economy comes to standstill. 0:05:22.440 --> 0:05:25.679 So we have to put we have to create jobs 0:05:26.160 --> 0:05:29.000 so that we can create the cycle of purchasing. 0:05:29.040 --> 0:05:33.960 And it's for us and for us. The closing of 0:05:34.000 --> 0:05:34.520 the circle. 0:05:35.279 --> 0:05:36.599 I'm going to the end of the story now, but 0:05:37.040 --> 0:05:40.680 is after these young people graduate in their craft and 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:43.200 the first four crafts that we're offering at our first year, 0:05:43.600 --> 0:05:45.240 we will end up with a whole full complement of 0:05:45.240 --> 0:05:48.839 twelve different crafts. But our first four crafts are iron work, 0:05:50.000 --> 0:05:52.680 which is literally from boiler making all the way through 0:05:52.720 --> 0:05:56.560 to you know, metal furniture and gates and railings and 0:05:56.600 --> 0:06:01.159 that sort of thing. The second craft is textile, so's weaving, spinning, yarn, 0:06:01.920 --> 0:06:05.080 block printing, text screen printing, all in this traditional manner. 0:06:06.160 --> 0:06:11.520 The third craft is CMT classic CMT. When growing up 0:06:11.560 --> 0:06:14.080 in Cape Town, all the way through wood Circon Assaultier 0:06:14.120 --> 0:06:16.560 of every second shop was a CMT shop in people 0:06:16.560 --> 0:06:18.600 in a sewing machine making beautiful things. Now you can 0:06:18.640 --> 0:06:23.839 hardly get something altered. And the whole idea is to 0:06:24.440 --> 0:06:29.919 is to bring back their whole cat making trim crafters. 0:06:30.320 --> 0:06:33.080 And the root for those crafters, to anyone who might 0:06:33.160 --> 0:06:35.520 be listening, actually is it's not just going and sitting 0:06:35.560 --> 0:06:38.680 at a table and then sewing T shirts for the 0:06:38.720 --> 0:06:42.000 rest of your life. I was recently at TFG and 0:06:42.400 --> 0:06:48.400 the route to employment and opportunity in that industry is 0:06:48.480 --> 0:06:52.000 so vast, but the young people don't know about it. 0:06:52.760 --> 0:06:55.120 So if you study, you've got you've got to know 0:06:55.160 --> 0:06:57.120 how to make something before you can become a garment 0:06:57.160 --> 0:07:01.360 engineer or a textiles engineer or a footwear specialist. 0:07:01.760 --> 0:07:04.080 And that is the starting point. The classic CMT. 0:07:04.480 --> 0:07:07.320 And the fourth craft that we're offering is classic furniture 0:07:07.360 --> 0:07:11.760 making and restoration. Because nobody can fix anything anymore and 0:07:12.200 --> 0:07:14.080 traditional upholstery, and there. 0:07:13.960 --> 0:07:15.160 Is a skills gap for that. 0:07:15.600 --> 0:07:18.880 So we've identified these first fore crafts as our starting 0:07:18.920 --> 0:07:22.760 point and sixty students for our first year, and the 0:07:22.760 --> 0:07:25.120 full complement of students post school is we're looking at 0:07:25.120 --> 0:07:27.160 one hundred about one hundred and twenty students, but we 0:07:27.200 --> 0:07:29.000 want to start our first year with a smaller compliment 0:07:29.040 --> 0:07:33.360 so we can hone our course and just make it, 0:07:34.640 --> 0:07:38.240 make our mistakes in our first year and hone and 0:07:38.240 --> 0:07:41.720 refine our course to then seamless need transition to one 0:07:41.800 --> 0:07:44.400 hundred and twenty students. But all of these sixty students, 0:07:44.720 --> 0:07:47.560 our research tells us we'll walk straight into employment. But 0:07:47.680 --> 0:07:49.920 our big goal is to set up a craft center 0:07:50.000 --> 0:07:54.560 adjacent to each school so that we can create this 0:07:54.760 --> 0:07:57.680 new manufacturing base of people where people can order things 0:07:57.720 --> 0:08:00.680 and bring things. We're not a design school, we will be. 0:08:01.520 --> 0:08:05.520 We are training in making beautifully and excellently so that 0:08:05.600 --> 0:08:08.360 people can bring their designs and have things made through 0:08:08.400 --> 0:08:11.680 these craft centers with the crafters as stakeholders. And that 0:08:11.800 --> 0:08:15.520 is the key thing. The crafters are stakeholders in their future, 0:08:15.920 --> 0:08:20.800 and we're setting up these different centers in different locations 0:08:20.800 --> 0:08:24.680 across the country. We can we can we can help 0:08:24.720 --> 0:08:27.840 sustain communities where bigger industries may be pulling out. We're 0:08:27.880 --> 0:08:31.360 busy discussing very early stages with a mining company about 0:08:31.360 --> 0:08:34.240 the closing of minds to create a roadmap for setting 0:08:34.280 --> 0:08:37.160 up schools in these communities as the minds put out, 0:08:37.400 --> 0:08:39.959 so that so that people can stay there and get 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:42.440 married there, have their children, then their grandparents can know, 0:08:42.480 --> 0:08:44.760 they can know their children, and you can stay in 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:46.560 the community where you live and you build up this 0:08:46.600 --> 0:08:49.560 wonderful network. And in the same vein, if you've got 0:08:49.600 --> 0:08:52.800 a chart a young man or young woman up in Limpopo, 0:08:52.960 --> 0:08:55.280 for instance, who just doesn't fit in, you can say, 0:08:55.280 --> 0:08:56.640 you know what, We've got a craft center that you 0:08:56.679 --> 0:08:58.960 can go and work out. Be a stakeholder in Cape 0:08:59.000 --> 0:09:02.320 Town or East London or Quasilian style, wherever it might be. 0:09:02.679 --> 0:09:05.760 There's a network that you can create for for people 0:09:05.800 --> 0:09:09.160 to exist and a bigger community. 0:09:09.880 --> 0:09:12.600 That's the end goal anyway, just for the sake of 0:09:12.600 --> 0:09:15.439 anybody who's come into this conversation midway and doesn't know 0:09:15.480 --> 0:09:17.480 who you're listening to. My guest joining us by a 0:09:17.559 --> 0:09:21.280 zoom this afternoon, justin fan Brida an acclaimed interior and 0:09:21.320 --> 0:09:24.480 furniture designer and the founder of a concept called craft 0:09:24.480 --> 0:09:27.480 Schools South Africa. The intention is to open the first 0:09:27.520 --> 0:09:30.960 branch here in Cape Town next year in twenty twenty six, 0:09:31.200 --> 0:09:33.840 and to keep on growing and expanding throughout the country 0:09:34.120 --> 0:09:39.240 thereafter a focus on crafting skills, on occupational skills that 0:09:39.320 --> 0:09:43.720 can provide a pathway to employment, to self sustainability and 0:09:43.880 --> 0:09:47.600 to a future and hope for young people for whom Justin, 0:09:47.720 --> 0:09:50.160 unfortunately we know hope is dying for many of them. 0:09:50.360 --> 0:09:53.680 There is just the sense of overwhelming hopelessness in so 0:09:53.760 --> 0:09:56.920 many communities when we look at the youth unemployment figures 0:09:56.960 --> 0:10:00.840 in particular. So I love about the story the combination 0:10:00.920 --> 0:10:06.120 of somebody saying I'm prepared to offer you a way 0:10:06.240 --> 0:10:08.880 to make your own future. But it goes hand in 0:10:08.920 --> 0:10:11.880 hand with this wonderful concept of preserving these skills. Justin, 0:10:12.240 --> 0:10:14.760 in the age of mass manufacture, of so much being 0:10:14.840 --> 0:10:18.559 automated and taken over by computers and three D printers, 0:10:18.920 --> 0:10:20.600 let's just talk a little bit about the value of 0:10:20.640 --> 0:10:24.880 holding on to this personal handmade craftsmanship. Obviously, for somebody 0:10:24.920 --> 0:10:27.360 like you who's a designed professional, there's a sense of 0:10:27.400 --> 0:10:29.760 personal pride in the work that makes it important to you. 0:10:30.040 --> 0:10:31.200 But why should we. 0:10:31.440 --> 0:10:35.240 Want to hold on to the handmade, handcrafted when a 0:10:35.240 --> 0:10:37.640 can computer or a three D printer can do things 0:10:38.000 --> 0:10:38.520 quickly and. 0:10:38.480 --> 0:10:42.600 Easily, because they tell the story of our country and 0:10:42.640 --> 0:10:47.000 they tell the story of our lives. Everybody's got something 0:10:47.080 --> 0:10:50.160 that was handed down to them by someone, given to 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:52.880 them as a gift by somebody, and those things tell 0:10:52.920 --> 0:10:55.400 the story and they are they're the threads that we've 0:10:55.480 --> 0:10:58.760 tapishure of our lives, and they are so important. And 0:10:59.160 --> 0:11:01.200 there is a language which it happens between the brain 0:11:01.280 --> 0:11:04.840 and the hand that cannot be replicated by a computer. 0:11:05.200 --> 0:11:07.840 And I'm not for one moment saying that a three 0:11:08.120 --> 0:11:10.640 A digital printer isn't the most amazing thing, because it is, 0:11:10.679 --> 0:11:13.040 and we hopefully, we hope one day to have one 0:11:13.440 --> 0:11:17.080 in the schools, because they can make components that you 0:11:17.120 --> 0:11:22.079 can then by hand make something bigger, bigger than just 0:11:22.120 --> 0:11:27.320 a component, and they and there is a so and 0:11:27.360 --> 0:11:30.720 it's the same as drawing. When you design something, there's 0:11:30.760 --> 0:11:32.720 a language that happens from your brain and your pencil 0:11:33.880 --> 0:11:36.320 when you sketch that you just can't you can't get 0:11:36.320 --> 0:11:40.680 that on a computer, and and that is an intrinsic value, 0:11:40.840 --> 0:11:43.920 but it's our cultural economy as well. And things made 0:11:43.960 --> 0:11:48.679 by hand are are what people are, what people resonate with, 0:11:48.720 --> 0:11:51.760 there's a there's an emotional resonance and and I think 0:11:51.760 --> 0:11:54.480 that's really important. And where where we haven't invested is 0:11:54.520 --> 0:11:57.200 in our what is known as anti crafts, which is 0:11:57.200 --> 0:12:03.040 the worst word in the world. These handicrafts are have 0:12:03.120 --> 0:12:05.520 no one's invested in them, so people are still making 0:12:05.559 --> 0:12:07.160 what they were making one hundred years ago. And I 0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:10.240 had a wonderful conversation with a woman in India who 0:12:10.280 --> 0:12:14.439 runs a huge organization who invest in handicrafts, and their 0:12:14.440 --> 0:12:16.360 help craft is you know, if you got a broken loom, 0:12:16.400 --> 0:12:18.920 they may finance getting being fixed or whatever. But they 0:12:19.400 --> 0:12:21.679 and she said that the biggest challenge they have is 0:12:21.800 --> 0:12:25.680 because they don't do any training. There's no design input, 0:12:25.840 --> 0:12:28.360 and so people are still making what they were making before. 0:12:28.440 --> 0:12:31.800 And so you know, nobody wants the carved giraffe anymore, 0:12:31.840 --> 0:12:33.720 you know, people who moved on from that sort of thing. 0:12:34.120 --> 0:12:36.439 And so what we're hopefully are going. 0:12:36.280 --> 0:12:42.040 To create is an opening in a marketplace of people 0:12:42.080 --> 0:12:46.480 looking for something in by hand. That and they can 0:12:46.480 --> 0:12:48.760 bring their designs and have them made at the school, 0:12:48.760 --> 0:12:50.680 and they can put their ideas and the ideas bounce 0:12:50.760 --> 0:12:51.280 off one another. 0:12:51.320 --> 0:12:52.720 And I think that's really really important. 0:12:52.800 --> 0:12:56.400 But what you were saying about hopelessness, Pippa is is is. 0:12:56.320 --> 0:12:57.160 What really struck me. 0:12:57.200 --> 0:13:01.120 We went two weeks ago to a an open day 0:13:01.240 --> 0:13:03.640 at a school and I Deserved school in the in 0:13:03.720 --> 0:13:07.240 Kpe town and it was their state appointed open day. 0:13:07.240 --> 0:13:10.120 This was the day where we career's day we would 0:13:10.120 --> 0:13:12.000 go and we would like jos along and put up 0:13:12.040 --> 0:13:13.960 our table and it was our first open day, so 0:13:14.000 --> 0:13:16.360 we all off. We went with our bags of physicism, 0:13:16.720 --> 0:13:20.280 lollipops and our big signs, and off we went and 0:13:20.360 --> 0:13:21.160 we nearly had a swim bed. 0:13:21.240 --> 0:13:21.520 Was the day. 0:13:21.559 --> 0:13:24.600 It was raining so badly with that storm. And we 0:13:24.640 --> 0:13:27.320 got there and there was this hall full of kids 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:34.920 sixteen to eighteen, grade ten, twelve, and three organizations turned 0:13:35.000 --> 0:13:36.920 up with the paramedics, the fire truck. 0:13:36.840 --> 0:13:40.520 And us, and I thought, my. 0:13:40.559 --> 0:13:43.559 Goodness, where are all the people who say they give 0:13:43.559 --> 0:13:47.800 a dad? And I was actually quite outraged about it 0:13:47.840 --> 0:13:51.560 because I was so disappointed for these kids. And the 0:13:51.640 --> 0:13:54.880 questions that we were asked were really bright, intelligent, exciting 0:13:54.960 --> 0:13:57.040 questions about you know, so if we come here, can 0:13:57.080 --> 0:13:58.520 we make our own business and how would we get 0:13:58.520 --> 0:14:03.160 the materials? What the kids are really excited about being 0:14:03.200 --> 0:14:06.600 exposed to something particularly creative, and that is the one 0:14:06.640 --> 0:14:10.400 thing that don't offer our kids in our unserved communities, 0:14:10.600 --> 0:14:12.280 you know, core centers of the rage at the moment, 0:14:12.360 --> 0:14:16.600 but no one is offering our creative kids anything. And 0:14:16.800 --> 0:14:18.760 there's a huge amount of money going into early learning 0:14:18.800 --> 0:14:20.960 development because the best thing you can do for a 0:14:21.000 --> 0:14:23.320 young person is teaching them and something out before their 0:14:23.320 --> 0:14:25.480 turn ten. And I totally get that, but there is 0:14:25.520 --> 0:14:28.520 a whole segment of our society and we have therefore 0:14:29.520 --> 0:14:32.640 changed our initial age qualifications. 0:14:32.680 --> 0:14:34.880 We're now accepting our applications between sixteen and. 0:14:34.840 --> 0:14:38.520 Twenty five for the school because these kids, they were 0:14:38.640 --> 0:14:41.600 kind of forgotten, and the creative kids particularly because they're 0:14:41.600 --> 0:14:43.520 often the dyslexic and the dyspractic and the ones that 0:14:43.640 --> 0:14:46.920 really struggle at school. And so we're non fee paying. 0:14:46.920 --> 0:14:50.160 We're a nonprofit, it's an NPC. It's registered as a 0:14:50.160 --> 0:14:51.400 cape Craft school because that's how. 0:14:51.320 --> 0:14:52.120 We were going to start. 0:14:53.720 --> 0:14:56.200 But it is a non fee paying school and it 0:14:56.280 --> 0:14:59.680 costs ninety thousand rand to put a child through this 0:14:59.720 --> 0:15:04.560 program for a year and it's expensive because to get 0:15:04.600 --> 0:15:06.720 a child, which we have to pay for is part 0:15:06.760 --> 0:15:08.960 of the thing. From their home to the school and 0:15:09.040 --> 0:15:12.800 back every day costs twenty one thousand round a year. 0:15:13.440 --> 0:15:16.640 Two you cannot fee. You cannot educate a hungry child. 0:15:17.040 --> 0:15:18.880 So each child will arrive at school and be given 0:15:18.920 --> 0:15:21.640 a breakfast snack and they would eive at the end 0:15:21.680 --> 0:15:23.960 of the day with an evening snack. Sometimes take two 0:15:23.960 --> 0:15:25.400 hours on the bus to get home or the train, 0:15:25.480 --> 0:15:28.040 and they have something to it and we will also 0:15:28.720 --> 0:15:32.000 we have this hidden curriculum which is all about their welfare, 0:15:32.120 --> 0:15:34.520 and they will cook together and learn to cook, and 0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:35.960 they will create meals for one another as a. 0:15:35.920 --> 0:15:37.600 Whole big lunchtime program. 0:15:37.880 --> 0:15:43.200 And they will also have counseling and numerously in literacy 0:15:43.400 --> 0:15:45.480 we'll have to bring that up to speed if that's lacking, 0:15:45.840 --> 0:15:49.120 and social counseling, one on one, group therapy, counseling. We 0:15:49.160 --> 0:15:51.360 want to turn out a student body that are engaged 0:15:51.400 --> 0:15:54.840 young South Africans who are excited about life. And because 0:15:54.880 --> 0:15:57.160 it's a free school, we have to counter the whole 0:15:57.200 --> 0:15:58.040 freeness of things. 0:15:58.240 --> 0:16:02.400 So we are making community a huge part of what 0:16:02.440 --> 0:16:05.320 we do. So it's about turning our a student body 0:16:05.320 --> 0:16:06.200 that understands. 0:16:05.800 --> 0:16:07.360 The communities about what you put in and what you 0:16:07.400 --> 0:16:10.160 take out, so they will immediately volunteer things, go back 0:16:10.200 --> 0:16:12.640 to the charities where they were because we are sourcing 0:16:12.680 --> 0:16:15.760 a lot of our students through charities that nurture young people, 0:16:16.280 --> 0:16:19.480 and they will go back in their holidays and volunteer 0:16:19.560 --> 0:16:21.760 back at those charities. What the events those charities throw, 0:16:22.000 --> 0:16:24.440 and that is a whole part of appoints that they're 0:16:24.440 --> 0:16:26.640 going to earn during the school time. 0:16:27.160 --> 0:16:30.280 Ninety thousand round per child per year. There's no shortage 0:16:30.360 --> 0:16:34.520 of I suspect, willing applicants and pool of potential candidates. 0:16:34.760 --> 0:16:37.040 Where are you getting the funding to fund that ninety 0:16:37.120 --> 0:16:38.920 thousand round per child per year? 0:16:39.160 --> 0:16:42.160 Well, we are a major fundraising drive at the moment. 0:16:42.360 --> 0:16:45.120 Have I initially thought that I would have to raise 0:16:45.160 --> 0:16:47.320 the money internationally having been away for twenty five years, 0:16:47.360 --> 0:16:50.080 I thought that I would probably raise the money internationally, 0:16:50.080 --> 0:16:51.920 But there has been a huge, huge amount of good 0:16:51.920 --> 0:16:57.040 will in South Africa. Momentum Health has offered their private 0:16:57.080 --> 0:17:00.960 healthcare program called Health for Me to all of to 0:17:01.040 --> 0:17:04.080 all of our students, which is amazing, And there are 0:17:04.160 --> 0:17:07.880 various foundations the private sector, and finally I've knocked down 0:17:07.920 --> 0:17:12.040 that some doors in the sector and conversations are beginning 0:17:12.040 --> 0:17:15.400 to activate their ecosystems to help. Because we need food 0:17:15.400 --> 0:17:17.639 and we need transport, we need a campus and we 0:17:17.760 --> 0:17:20.880 need everything basically because we don't have anything. But we've 0:17:20.920 --> 0:17:24.440 got a lot of support, but fundraising. It took a 0:17:24.440 --> 0:17:26.520 lot of time to get our applications right, to get 0:17:26.520 --> 0:17:28.560 our eighteen A, our state certificates saying that we are 0:17:28.600 --> 0:17:31.800 a charity, and all our registrations the Department of Social Development, 0:17:32.119 --> 0:17:35.240 so those were all in place by May, and so 0:17:35.320 --> 0:17:38.560 we've been using June, July and the rest of the 0:17:38.640 --> 0:17:42.520 year to complete the conversations that we started with a 0:17:42.600 --> 0:17:45.560 number of organizations to gain the funding. But we are 0:17:45.600 --> 0:17:47.800 in fundraising drive and we've got all different routes to 0:17:47.800 --> 0:17:49.080 funding and they're all on our website. 0:17:49.119 --> 0:17:52.720 Fantastic right just to finish our conversation with Justin von Brida, 0:17:52.800 --> 0:17:56.040 the founder of Craft Schools South Africa. Before the break, 0:17:56.040 --> 0:17:59.359 we were hearing the vision of beginning with one campus 0:17:59.400 --> 0:18:02.919 here in Cape and ultimately hopefully expanding to have centers 0:18:02.920 --> 0:18:05.320 all over the country where learners will be able to 0:18:05.359 --> 0:18:09.520 be skilled with crafting skills, the likes of textile weaving, 0:18:09.640 --> 0:18:14.720 furniture making, iron work, progressing in later years onto carving 0:18:14.760 --> 0:18:18.159 and sculpture, leather work, ceramics, speedwork, jewelry, glass blowing and 0:18:18.200 --> 0:18:21.720 the like, and the whole package that goes with that 0:18:21.960 --> 0:18:25.600 of ensuring that they're given the best possible chance of success, 0:18:26.080 --> 0:18:28.240 meaning that it's not just about offering them a place 0:18:28.280 --> 0:18:31.440 at the school. It's supporting with transport to and from school, 0:18:31.480 --> 0:18:35.720 with nutrition at school, with life skills, etc. Justin you 0:18:35.760 --> 0:18:38.760 were saying beforehand, obviously you're still in the fundraising process 0:18:39.080 --> 0:18:42.359 and you haven't yet identified an actual physical venue. So 0:18:43.359 --> 0:18:46.040 how confident are you that you'll be able to open 0:18:46.080 --> 0:18:48.640 that first branch in twenty twenty six in Cape Town. 0:18:48.760 --> 0:18:50.879 Is it sort of a big dream that's still a 0:18:50.920 --> 0:18:52.879 far way off or do you feel certain that it 0:18:52.920 --> 0:18:53.439 will happen? 0:18:54.880 --> 0:18:57.200 There are no certainties, I don't think, KIPA. But we 0:18:57.640 --> 0:18:58.200 did change. 0:18:58.200 --> 0:19:00.600 We did change the name from Kraft from Cape Craft 0:19:00.640 --> 0:19:01.960 School to Craft School South Africa. 0:19:02.359 --> 0:19:05.080 And because we have been after already. 0:19:06.600 --> 0:19:11.159 A campus in Johannesburg in working very closely with Josie 0:19:11.160 --> 0:19:13.280 and my Josie who are doing credible work up there. 0:19:13.320 --> 0:19:15.680 And we've been offered a building in the IDAs Valley 0:19:15.720 --> 0:19:21.879 in Stellenbosch and it was and so we were we 0:19:21.880 --> 0:19:24.920 were pretty certain that we could pivot to Stellenbosch for 0:19:24.960 --> 0:19:28.720 our first school. However, after going to that career's day 0:19:29.800 --> 0:19:33.960 in last two Wednesday or two two weeks ago, I'm 0:19:33.960 --> 0:19:36.040 pretty determined that we were loping Ko because they're students 0:19:36.040 --> 0:19:37.960 who are relying on us. There are students who who 0:19:37.960 --> 0:19:40.800 are so excited about what they could be doing. And 0:19:41.119 --> 0:19:44.480 when I asked the principal what they do what their 0:19:44.560 --> 0:19:46.760 kids do after the trick, he goes. 0:19:46.520 --> 0:19:47.880 Well, now go back into the community. 0:19:47.960 --> 0:19:49.320 Some of them can raise the money to go to 0:19:49.359 --> 0:19:55.919 Taik Crivate School and do something, but there's just no opportunity. 0:19:56.240 --> 0:19:58.600 And so I'm I was with Dawn Plumber, one of 0:19:58.680 --> 0:20:01.240 our board members who running operations of the of the 0:20:03.119 --> 0:20:05.360 of the Foundation, and I looked at her, I said, 0:20:05.359 --> 0:20:07.959 we've got to open the school in Cape Town. So 0:20:08.000 --> 0:20:09.439 we've got a we have it, we have it. We 0:20:09.520 --> 0:20:12.760 have an evening reception happening in in August. We've had 0:20:12.800 --> 0:20:14.879 a lot of conversations. I mean, having done Hannesburg a 0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:17.520 few times and there are a lot of supportive people 0:20:17.560 --> 0:20:21.840 who are activating networks. And now the we're having I'm 0:20:21.880 --> 0:20:25.439 having conversations with west Grow and we have identified a 0:20:25.440 --> 0:20:29.680 building and we are negotiating a lease, but it is 0:20:29.720 --> 0:20:33.280 a commercial lease and it's expensive, and with the money 0:20:33.280 --> 0:20:35.960 that we spend on that, we could educate another fifteen kids. 0:20:36.720 --> 0:20:39.560 And I just can't believe that there isn't a building 0:20:39.680 --> 0:20:44.880 somewhere in Cape Town that that we could we could 0:20:44.920 --> 0:20:47.040 we could move into at a kind of a CSI 0:20:47.160 --> 0:20:49.879 range or something, because it's a great thing, the school, 0:20:49.880 --> 0:20:51.879 and it was for me changed my whole life. I mean, 0:20:51.880 --> 0:20:53.960 I moved back to Cape On for twenty five years. 0:20:54.000 --> 0:20:58.359 It's quite a quite a thing, and it is for me, 0:20:58.440 --> 0:21:00.399 it was a star sort of too bright not follow, 0:21:00.640 --> 0:21:05.120 but it's a The children's reaction to. 0:21:05.520 --> 0:21:07.760