MES: a pillar in our community
“We want to take away the hand-out mentality from our clients. We want them to know nothing is free in the world, not to bring them down or worsen their situations, but to empower them so they work hard.”
You might know that MES Kempton Park is a shelter for the homeless, but what else does MES offer the community?MES was founded in 1986 and the first branch was opened in Hillbrow as a spiritual upliftment programme visiting the neediest members of the community, giving them some spiritual upliftment.
As the programme grew, the owners realised there was a need for shelters for homeless people in Johannesburg.
The organisation grew and opened branches in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth in 2007, and in 2010 MES Kempton Park was opened with 10 full-time staff members and at least 150 volunteers per year to this day.
MES Kempton Park realised the challenges in our community are a destabilised central business distric (CBD), unemployment, hunger, homelessness, drug abuse and uneducated children which lead to crime, begging and prostitution.
The organisation provides a community kitchen which serves a cooked meal five days a week at R5 a plate.
The overnight shelter costs R16 a night per person. With that money, clients are provided with a bed, warm shower in the morning and facilities to wash their clothes, including washing powder.
Kempton Express asked why the organisation charged for shelter and food.
“We want to take away the hand-out mentality from our clients. We want them to know that nothing is free in the world, not to bring them down or worsen their situations, but to empower them so they work hard to gain whatever they want in their own power. We charge such low prices, but at the same time we are teaching people the art of responsibility,” said MES Kempton Park branch manager Duane Edwards.
The shelter has a capacity to accommodate 49 people at a time. Currently there are 39 males and 10 females.
“Our clients are only allowed to stay at the shelter for four months unless they have to extend their stay with a valid reason, like not being able to find a job or not having family. We are always trying to empower our clients, so us telling them they have four months only with the shelter encourages them to look for jobs so they can find places to stay and pay their own rent,” continued Edwards.
“We do not condone drug or alcohol abuse, so every night each client takes a breathalyser test for alcohol before they can enter the premises. We do random drug tests from time to time.”
The shelter always has a shelter manager on duty at the premises.
The organisation also has a food parcel project where 60 parcels are given to families every week, on Tuesdays. The families are evaluated according to their state of living before being given the parcels. Evaluation takes place every six months.
The food parcels are given to 10 elderly citizens and 50 families that have about 93 children who are under the age of 18. The money for the food parcels and community kitchen is donated by KFC.
MES also provides an after-school programme for children who need a place to be while waiting for their parents to come back from work. The after-school programme has a capacity for 25 children. Currently 23 children attend from Monday to Thursday.
“We have a qualified teacher to look after them and help them with their homework where possible. The children also get a plate of food,” said Edwards.
MES runs a programme called Grow (God Restores Our World). Through this programme clients are taught working skills and responsibility. Every client is given the opportunity to work for the organisation to earn some money.
“They are given the opportunity to help us with a few projects like gardening and recycling. They sort recycled goods and then Mpact Recycling collects the waste,” continued Edwards. The clients are paid every second week for the work they have done.
MES also has vouchers residents can buy to give to people in need of shelter or food.
“Often people are sceptical about giving homeless people money because they question what they do with the money, that is why we have vouchers available. The vouchers are R160 for 10 shelter vouchers and R50 for the kitchen vouchers. The vouchers are available for purchase at the MES Kempton Park offices on Kempton Road.”
