Daily Bread to the desperate

“As a nation, we’re a tapestry that needs to be woven together. And if you pull one thread, sometimes the whole thing falls apart,” philosophised Charmaine McGinley, founder of Daily Bread.

McGinley is no stranger to the power of community. Unemployed following a successful restaurant career, she discovered a different kind of nourishment – opening a shelter for women and children in Douglasdale. But after pouring all her resources into her charitable efforts, she was forced by lack of funding to close the shelter, and is now supported by a network of friends and family, allowing her to continue her work amongst the downtrodden of Johannesburg North.

Daily Bread operates mostly in Kya Sands and Msawawa informal settlements, where, from the distribution of donations to plans for a preschool on the edge of Msawawa, McGinley immerses herself in the struggles of the community.

Alongside the Johannesburg Indian Women’s Association, Daily Bread runs a feeding scheme three days a week, exchanging plates of food for bags of rubbish, to encourage residents to take pride in their surroundings. McGinley has enlisted the help of gourmet takeaway outlet Sumting Fresh, which donates leftovers following the weekly Fourways Farmers Market.

Daily Bread also offers an unusual team-building activity – “gratitude walks” on the poverty-stricken side of what McGinley calls the “mink and manure line” between Msawawa and the nearby, shockingly upscale townhouse complexes. The walks, McGinley says, foster awareness, reminding participants of how much they have to be grateful for – and how easily they could find themselves in a place like Msawawa.

Daily Bread has also worked with Douglasdale police and Community Policing Forum to reduce the crime emerging from Msawawa, and McGinley does what she can to assist those without jobs or documentation. The needs are so endless, in fact, that she performs the role of doctor, lawyer, social worker and countless others, she says.

But McGinley’s primary message is community. Once believing she could walk into the informal settlements and change the world, she says she learnt the hard way that success comes only through working with the fabric of any community.

Details: Facebook: Daily Bread Org