A shot of kindness from coffee shop

The spirit of generosity remains undefeated even during difficult times. Some community members proved this recently as they helped a man who was almost at his wit’s end.

Shaodre Gwavaira who came to seek greener pastures in Gauteng from Cape Town, found himself struck by hard times during lockdown.  “I came to Johannesburg but then I struggled with everything, I couldn’t find a job and sometimes I would sleep outside. One of the days as I was walking by the park in Melrose, some people came and robbed me of everything, including clothes. I went around and asked for help,” recounted Gwavaira.

He added that he stayed in a few places till he met Princess Mlangeni who works as a nanny for Misha Levin. Mlangeni decided to give Gwavaira a place to stay at her home in Kensington.    Mlangeni said, “The one thing that drew me to Shaodre and made me want to help him was the fact that he looked very clean and smart. He  told  his sad story to me with a smile and that made me cry. I admired his positive attitude.”

Levin acknowledged that Gwavaira definitely made an impression on her nanny. “She opened her home to a stranger while I helped him look for something to do. He had experience in gardening. I am very passionate about coffee so I reached out to Dayne and asked him to take him under his wing and he did so without hesitation,” Levin said.

She added that Dayne Levinrad, Founder of Bird Coffee Co said he couldn’t promise him a job but offered to train him as barista.  Levinrad who has been in the coffee industry for several years said Bird (derived from Birdhaven) Coffee Co initially came about as a pop-up shop during lockdown in mid-May.

“Through this Covid-19 lockdown I had a lot of guys, baristas, calling me saying they need work and I felt obliged to help them. So I popped-up Bird whose premise was just to have guys who were out of work, able to come and work here full shifts and earn a couple of hundred rands a day and tips and so on,” he said.

Levinrad explained that when Levin approached him, he immediately agreed to train him as much as he could to be a barista and learn much about the industry. Levinrad said, “I think we all have an obligation to help those less fortunate and to do our part in regards to people’s well-being in this country; especially right now because times are really tough. We would love to help everyone but we can’t really do that but what would be amazing would be to see other people or industries doing the same thing.” Levinrad commended Gwavaira whom he said shows up every day, with the right attitude and is willing to learn.

He added that they were currently looking at turning the pop-up coffee shop into a fixed location shop.  Levin added that after posting Gwavaira’s story on Instagram, the community’s response was great as they received donations of clothes for him every day. She hoped he would get a job soon.

By 5 August it had been a week since Gwavaira had started training at Bird Coffee and he said he enjoyed being there.

https://www.citizen.co.za/rosebank-killarney-gazette/286108/random-acts-of-kindness-2015-launched/

https://www.citizen.co.za/rosebank-killarney-gazette/164399/voices-of-the-citysubhead-a-commendable-young-man/