Heidi Olivier

A community appeal from a foster mother whose house had burnt down inspired the Etex South Africa Technical, Marketing and Sales teams to get involved as part of #UnitedToInspire. At the time of the fire, five children were living with her, but three had to go into child welfare afterwards. Apart from two rooms, the entire house had burnt down. Unfortunately, the family had to live in the remains of the house for just over a year as there was no house insurance to cover the loss.

Etex got involved with installing a ceiling and adding the roof before the summer rains started again. We added an attic to the roof design as storage space. Just before the Etex team went on leave in December for the summer holidays, we assembled and installed the steel roof trusses, which came from our Berry Road plant. We joined forces with another two suppliers to sponsor the roof sheets and fixings, and the entire job took us 4 days to complete.

It was a very humbling experience for all involved Teammates. The foster mother will be able to host more children again as her home is now safe.