After five years of planning, a new recreational centre for Lavender Hill children will start running soon after the containers used as rooms have been delivered.
Community liaison officer for Rise Above Development Mark Nicholson says their aim is to get kids off the streets and drugs.
He runs a soup kitchen as well as soccer and boxing clubs in the area.
He says the two large shipping containers, as well as equipment, have been sponsored.
“We are planning on opening a fully-equipped music studio, library, internet cafe and library,” he explains.
“This is basically phase one of our plans, we are leasing the whole field from the City.
“We got a ten-year lease, the other side of the field will be the sports centre, where there will be a multi-service field for soccer and rugby, a tennis court and two netball courts which are main sports in the area.”
Mark, who is the brother of the late John Nicholson, says he has been working with the community for 21 years and building on his sibling’s legacy.
John became well-known after establishing a community library in his garage in Lavender Hill.
“From about the age of 15 to 31 years old I was addicted to drugs, I was a vagrant, scratching in the dirt bins in Lavender Hill,” says Mark.
“My life changed the day I was shot accidentally by police. I lost all my friends as I was out for about two months and I realised that I could actually live without drugs.
“My girlfriend, who is now my wife, was very supportive.
“My son asked me to start a soccer team in 2021 and that is where the idea came from to get the kids on this very field and we started having tournaments.”
The field was once a battlefield for gangsters, he says.
“I lost relatives in the very same field that I want to help the community in, that is what made me want to push for our youth because our children are lost.
“We want to change lives, gangs, drugs and violence especially gender based violence is one of the worst problems we have here.
“The community has bought into it, no one has been killed on the field because they see my vision.”
Mark says he is happy the plan is coming together, and hopes to launch the centre on 29 November.
“Rise Above Development worked with In Place of War and Breadline Africa, to make this possible.”