"PRIDE in your residence" is the theme of Project Pride, a student initiated venture that is slowly picking up support in Kopano Residence where a few residents are taking the initiative to improve the general appearance of Kopano.

Eric Savage, Kopano Sub-Warden and organiser of Project Pride, says that project is a variety of tasks that the 2001 House Committee had wanted to tackle but due to budget and time constraints had been unable to do so.

"This year out of frustration I simply put all the different tasks under one banner, Project Pride, the main task of which is the garden. It emerged last year during the run up to House Committee elections that people were not happy with the general appearance of the residence.

"I have done some gardening at home so I had a fair idea of what needed to be improved and how it should be done," explains Savage.

With the help of two fellow residents, Savage has set about rearranging the flowers and plants currently growing on the Kopano grounds. This involved drawing plans of the gardens and allocating a few hours every Saturday morning to their tasks.

Savage has also been in contact with local nurseries looking for plant donations to add to Kopano's blossoming garden. "Our House Committee does not have the money to buy more plants so we are looking for donors, people who can give us indigenous plants or flowers. We will take anything that does not need a lot of maintenance," he says.

Plans to improve Kopano's appearance also involve constructing a fountain and improving the reception area, but for now says Savage the main emphasis is on the garden.

"Sometime in the future we hope to put big pot plants around the residence. We plan to make everything ourselves because it will be a lot cheaper. We would also like to sell miniature pot plants to people in the residence to raise money for our project."

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