Door to door Survey

This door to door survey was conducted by a core group of approximately 35 unemployed volunteers under the age of 30 who want to make a change in their community. The only perk these volunteers received for their work was food donated by Vreestate Caring Action, a women's group of Vredefort.


This survey started as a means to get the word to people who didn't have ID's and Birth Certificates that would allow them to collect retirement pay and money from the government for children who were entitled. To this basic survey we added questions about type of housing they had; how many people lived in the home; how many were employed; how many could read and write; how many were on a pension; and the source from where they received income. Thus far the group has visited 1114 homes in Mokwallo with the following results:
RDP or like housing 722 , Makuku (temporary tin shacks) 459, # People surveyed 4737, # Have ID 2640, Birth Certificate 1813, Adults Employed 473, # Have Matric (high school diploma) 621, # receiving Pension 575, # Read 2422, # Write 2411 sources of income were anything from domestic, gardener, farm worker, mine worker, employed by Sasol, local business, abitoir, truck driver, police, or municipality. Many did not answer the question and some questions were answered with dashes, checks or crosses; thus, there can be many holes in the survey.


We knew going into the survey that unemployment would be high, but were astounded to find the unemployment rate of 90%.

We feel that this survey serves as a pilot study showing our community is in dire shape and much assistance is needed. We further suggest that this assistance must not be a gift. We must not give them the fish, we must teach them to fish. We also feel that the survey must be refined and our survey takers given better instruction on how to fill in the results that we need to make the next one more accurate. Overall we feel this survey would work as a true gage for our communities growth or change because of our project.