Looking for a non-profit organisation you could donate to this festive season?
Out of the box is a not-for-profit company that is centred around skills development. It aims to help people of the community gain skills, such as sewing, woodwork and becoming handymen, they otherwise would not have had the opportunity to attain. They also have business-savvy classes that further assist their students to run their businesses.
The organisation shared its wish list with Northcliff Melville Times in hopes that someone in the community could help change lives. Its founder, Nina Venjakob shared their primary need is monetary donations. With dwindling job opportunities they believe they can change the face of the future. “We can teach a skill that will result in a small business operating from home, putting food on the table and making a future a very real thing,” she said.
The cost of skilling a person is R4 000 on average. Venjakob explained they shaved the costs down to each pin, nail and screw needed. Adding the business skills, and everything else needed for successfully running a small business adds another R3 000 on average. “We cannot teach woodwork without wood, machines and tools or sewing without fabric and machines. Also repairs and maintenance to machines and tools are ongoing.”
Things you can donate:
- Toilet paper
- Cleaning materials
- Tea/coffee
- Masks
- Sanitiser
- Fabric and wool forgotten in the cupboard
- Left over wood (to use for teaching purposes)
- Old, unused tools in the garage that can kick-start an aspiring woodworker or handyman
- Old sewing machines
- Donate all ‘throw-outs’ – the organisation works with people who have nothing. Old clothes, pots and pans, old tiles and broken chairs are welcome
- Broken computers, cell phones and printers will help to teach repairers to become experts.
Better yet, if you have a computer or cell phone and printer that needs repairing, send it their way!
