This was launched in 1991 and was premised as an empowerment project financed by Backsberg, sweat equity of the beneficiaries and a small government grant between 1991 to 1994. The project sought to ensure that all Backsberg workers had the ability to own the home they resided in. This broke the entrenched ties between being a farmworker and living on the estate. Losing your job and your roof was historically one and the same thing. Today, Backsberg employees live in their own houses, and continue to do so even after leaving the Backsberg fold.