Cape Town - A Lavender Hill field, notoriously known as a “battlefield” due to gang-related violence and bloodshed, is seeing its reclamation by residents.
Every Tuesday, community worker Mark Anthony Nicholson, 54, assisted by a team comprising family members and residents, gathers more than 30 senior residents on the field, situated along Blode Street, for fitness exercises followed by board games at Nicholson’s home nearby, all while reminiscing about the good times past.
“I feel very good about it because at home we don’t exercise so when we come here, we do it and we enjoy what we’re doing at the club,” one of the senior participants, Phyllis Edwards, said.
“At home, we’re mostly indoors and we don’t go out or anything but when we come here, we talk to each other. We’re excited to come to the club because we meet our friends and chat and do whatever we want,” said Edwards.
Meals are also provided to the seniors, made possible through donations.
The Chancengross soup kitchen provides around 300 meals a day, four days a week to residents.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, meals were provided every day of the week, however, due to fewer donors, this has been reduced.
“The battlefield has been a field that was used by opposition gangs to create a war and then they would shoot at each other. The biggest war that has happened in Lavender Hill was for six months non-stop,” Nicholson said.
“For years, there’s been war on this field and my dream has always been to try to eradicate gang violence, gun violence, and the death of our young people. When moving to Lavender Hill as a young man of 17 years old, I fell into a life of drugs, violence, gangsterism and for about 25 years of my life, I was addicted to mainly mandrax and heroin and also marijuana.”
It was after Nicholson was shot by the police that he decided he needed to make drastic efforts to save and change the trajectory of his life. Now, he facilitates drug and violence prevention programmes at schools.
When his youngest son was 11 and had requested him to start a soccer club, this set the ball rolling for many community activities, predominantly targeted at the youth. He continues to train soccer from the field twice a week.
The team would like to see the seniors club undertake a weekend excursion to the Greyton EcoLodge in early September and is currently raising funds to see this realised.
Anyone able to assist can contact Nicholson via Whatsapp on +27 63 567 3739/ 0670379518 or email [email protected]
Cape Argus