Our History

WUCT was born out of the work of a small group of committed Christians in the Tokai and Constantia parishes.  It started with provision of food and clothing to those in need in the community, through to developing a strategy for an onsite building, crèche and pre-school and then into the area of health and welfare support, skills training and youth development.

In the late 1990s, prior to the building of the Westlake Business Park, a small group of Christians worked with and built up a relationship with the informal dwellers at the side of the M3 highway.  Di Forrester was one of these key people, and remains today committed to helping this vulnerable community. With the building of the business park starting in 2001 came the provision of 650  2-room brick houses with running water and toilets, but with no ceiling and tiny backyards.  These 650  semi-detached (RDP) houses were given to the community, but soon it was evident this was not sufficient and backyard bungalows soon aided with this need.

Those residents blessed with improved housing were sadly not provided with the means to sustain ownership.  Crime, violence, alcohol and drug abuse were rampant as people struggled with unemployment and low self-esteem.  Little children of pre-school age roamed the streets, ill clad, dirty and often hungry.

With no schools in the area, older children had to travel long distances to attend outlying schools, with most unemployed parents giving up in the end.  With no education and hope, the children were open to abuse and the dangers of crime and drug addiction.

It is under these circumstances that a group of eight churches came together, to put together a programme of development.  The Church of the Holy Spirit, St Martin’s Anglican Church Bergvliet, Tokai Methodist Church, Christ Church Constantia, Bergvliet Congregational Church and Trinity Presbyterian Church Meadowridge.