Welcome back to the podcast.

Today's episode is an absolute treat.

I have a conversation with a person doing the absolute most in Somerset West. She, along with her husband pastor a growing, life-giving church, she is the chairperson of the Somerset West Night Shelter (an organization committed to serving the homeless community in Somerset West -- the shelter currently takes care of 100 adults and 20 children), she leads and looks after Op Die Plaas (a pre-school for a farming community in Heldervalley) she's also involved in many other things including Church Street Coffee and the Somerset West Street Store.

You will find all the links at the bottom.

She is an absolutely busy woman and it was such an honor for me to be able to have this conversation with her!

We talk life under lockdown, homelessness and launching a new family shelter, why it’s better to support a local charity than simply giving to street-beggars, the importance of giving homeless people hope and dignity, as well as leading a preschool for children in the farming community

I am absolutely sure that this conversation will leave you feeling inspired and energized to get up and get that project started -- you know, the one you've been postponing for a couple of years now or to start donating to your local charity organization.

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If you're watching on YouTube, first of all, apologies in advance for the poor video quality, we had some significant network challenges.

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TIMESTAMPS

00:00 Intro

02:04 Life during lockdown

09:23 Somerset West Night Shelter

14:40 Why it’s better to buy a voucher than to give directly to the homeless

19:31 Op Die Plaas (pre-school)

26:54 Somerset West Street Store and Church Street Coffee

30:18 Giving Hope and Dignity to the homeless

36:42 Funding for the Somerset West Night Shelter

38:53 Personal Highlights from serving the community

42:13 Greatest lessons picked up along the way

44:11 Advice for people wanting to start making a difference in their own surrounding

46:02 Mobile accommodation for the homeless

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LINKS

Contact Jo

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jo.swart

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jo.swart/

Life Church Somerset West

Website: www.lifechurch.co.za

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCxQQ6VBCWMH41BmWFeeUxA

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/findliveshare

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/life_findliveshare/

Somerset West Night Shelter

Website: https://swnightshelter.org.za

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/somerset_west_night_shelter/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Somersetwestnightshelter/

Op Die Plaas

Website: http://opdieplaas.org.za

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OpDiePlaasPreschool

Email us your thoughts and any suggestions you may have at [email protected] alternatively, connect with us via social media on https://facebook.com/makeadifferencepodcast or https://instagram.com/makeadifference_podcast

In this episode Mondli talks about the gender-based violence crisis, why we all need to get involved and some practical things to get you started.

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Links

https://beyondthesewalls.org.za/podcast/2020/07/19/the-gender-based-violence-crisis/

Gender-based violence has been identified by our president as the second epidemic that South Africans are facing, on top of the coronavirus global pandemic. Statistics South Africa released a report in 2018 which states that the rate of femicide (which is the murder of women on the basis of their gender) in South Africa is five times higher than the global average. The time to act against gender-based violence is right now. This fight is for all of us because this crisis is a humanity crisis.

Introductory episode to the Make A Difference Podcast.