Let’s help with blankets this winter

I stay in The Hill and I have been collecting blankets for the past four years. This is my own project and it is run without being connected to any institution or company.

Basically, there is a need to keep the people warm during the winter, and there a lot of needy people in and around the Joburg CBD. All I do is create an event on Facebook and invite my friends to donate. I don’t promote the event in any way other than sharing it with my friends. The reason I do this is because I don’t want the focus to be on the event or any person in particular. The focus should always be on the people who are being helped.

We have collected 50 blankets so far and there are still people looking to donate. This is power of Social Media; I have been contacted by complete strangers who want to donate and heard about it via Facebook. The generosity of people has really blown me away!

As far as handing the blankets out, I drive around with my car full of blankets and hand them out to people on the street or those begging at traffic lights. There is no shortage of people to whom we hand out blankets to, in fact, I wish we could do more, because there are so many people in need, but at least it is making a difference to the people who do receive blankets.

Dirk Visser

dirkjv54@gmail.com