Support Grace Aid’s annual street store

“THE homeless are often overlooked by society. We turn away and pretend not to notice them.” This is the sad and all too familiar reality painted by Dave Richter, the missions and justice coordinator of the Grace Family Church in uMhlanga.

The Northglen News caught up the with the church’s non-profit organisation (NPO), Grace Aid, as it prepares to host its third annual Pop-Up Street Store, an idea inspired by the street store concept that was started in Cape Town.

According to Dimitra Nicolau, Grace Aid coordinator, the store offers the unemployed, materially poor and homeless community with the retail experience we take for granted – for free.

Through the novel initiative, the group aspires not only to shower the homeless with warm clothes for the coming winter months but also to help any who are set on turning their lives around.

“The concept of the project is set up around a pop-up store where donated clothes will be hung and laid out for poor people to browse and choose items that not only fit properly, but that they actually like and want. Each person will be assigned an ‘assistant’ that will help him or her through the selection process. The idea is to give these people a sense of significance and dignity. We want to make them feel that they are being seen and heard,” she explained.

Street store meets skills development

In addition to clothes, the beneficiaries will also be given food and a haircut. What’s more, there will also be a stall set up to introduce the impoverished and unemployed community to the church’s skills development programme.

Paradigm Shift, as it has been dubbed, offers three skills development courses, including tarning or crocheting, sewing and business training as well as life skills and job readiness classes to people from disadvantaged communities in the aims of empowering them to become self sustainable.

“We often are concerned with programmes where we only help for a day or so. Ultimately our aim is to provide a long-term solution to poverty and not a once-off donation. It is our desire to see them equipped with life skills and practical tools, enabling them to earn an income and to get back on their feet,” said Nicolau.

During last year’s street store, the church clothed 850 people from various age groups, genders and races. “We even had little children no more than 11 years old coming in with their younger siblings. When we asked about their parents, we learned that there were no mums or dads. It was a sobering and frightening moment,” she said.

• The NPO has made an appeal for new or ‘like-new’ clothes, particularly for men as the majority of the donations tend to be for females. Donations can be dropped of at both the uMhlanga and Riverside campuses. Volunteers to help on the day are also welcomed. This year’s event will take place on Saturday, 16 April from 8.30am to midday at 398 Mahatma Gandhi Road, Durban. Contact the church on 031 575 9300.