Tshepo Community Development Initiative connects with the community
NORTHCLIFF – The Tshepo Community Development Initiative will also be recipients of the May Blanket Drive.
The Tshepo Community Development Initiative aims to empower people through job-creation.
The non-profit organisation, founded in 2007 as a response to the growing number of homeless and unemployed people in the suburbs of Johannesburg, has partnered with the local churches in the Northcliff and Linden areas. Their mission is to help people so that they can live independent, sustainable and meaningful lives.
General manager at the centre, Japie Krige spoke about the different projects they are supporting. “We have two guys who have stalls – one sells firewood and does tree felling and the other makes planting boxes. Our other projects include a soup kitchen that we have on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, a nursery, vegetable garden and compost which we make and sell here. On weekends we now have a waterless car was open to the public.”
The programme teaches conservation agriculture techniques by partnering with Farming God’s Way and provides nutrition for their own feeding scheme. They generate income to create employment by selling vegetables, compost, potting soil, topsoil and plants to the public.
The initiative also runs the Windsor after-school programme based at the Windsor East Recreation Centre which is one of the recipients of the May Blanket Drive. The centre has about 40 children who each receive a meal and assistance with homework on a daily basis.
Krige said, “Our feeding scheme is a safe place where people who have lost hope can come and have a meal, take a shower and have their dignity restored.”
The centre has an in-house social worker who does assessments and refers individuals for the appropriate interventions such as their work rehabilitation programme. “People also receive the opportunity to work to receive clothing and [they receive] assistance in opening bank accounts and applying for ID books.”
The Tshepo Community Development Initiative will also be recipients of the May Blanket Drive – an initiative organised by Heathway Centre, Pick n Pay Heathway, Northcliff Union Church and Northcliff Melville Times under the Caxton Cares banner, as reported in the Northcliff Melville Times in Helping hand for the needy [Week ending, 31 May].
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