The pavement outside the Helen Gibling Gardens Retirement Home in Durban got a facelift thanks to the collaboration of businesses and the community.
Durban, South Africa (20 July 2023) – Retired residents of the Helen Gibling Gardens retirement village have faced endless frustration with water outages, broken pipes and crushed pavements, so with a collaboration between On The Verge and Online Adverting, the area was given a bright splash of paint to uplift the residents.
Agency owners Stacey Randall and Murray Clark decided to donate their skills to make the area less of an eyesore for the residents. They supplied the materials and the talent to paint the concrete bollards that are protecting the crumbling pavement.
“During the past few years local businesses have allowed, even encouraged unauthorised heavy vehicles, car carriers, scrap metal carriers, and even petrol tankers to come into a residential area with a maximum tonnage on roads of 3.5 tons.
This resulted in pavements broken, water pipes bursting, roads dug up and the oldies having to walk in a busy street because the pavement was all broken and dug up and all of this on repeat monthly!
The huge trucks would mount the pavement either to park or turn illegally, their weight damaging the underlying pipes. After the sixth broken pipe in six months, with each time the old age people being without water for lengthy periods, we met with our local councillor Ernest Smith and he arranged with the relevant municipal department for bollards to be placed along the pavement
This was a two-fold solution: the pipes below the pavement would be protected, and secondly, the oldies would now have a safe place to walk.
After the bollards arrived, we decided they were ugly and boring, and since many of the oldies are confined to their rooms most of the day, we want to brighten their outlook.”
The company gave each staff member the brief: design and paint a bright and hopeful message to all Durbanites. The Bollards are along the side of the road and each has a hopeful message for those passing by and those who see them daily from their rooms.
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