Everything you should know about MES
Express spoke to Kempton MES fund-raising and marketing manager Aloma Swanepoel about frequently asked questions about the NPO.
NPO Mould Empower Serve (MES) is a national Christian-integrated social development organisation that hopes to provide sustainable solutions to poverty within the inner cities of South Africa.
The organisation was founded in 1986 and the branch in Kempton Park officially opened its doors on August 1, 2010.
Express spoke to Kempton MES fund-raising and marketing manager Aloma Swanepoel about frequently asked questions about the NPO.
Where does MES receive funding from?
MES is thankful to every corporate, individual and church that sponsors them. Some donors prefer to give to specific projects.
For example, MES has one corporate that sponsors its food parcel project and one corporate and church that sponsors the Grow programme, a project that provides homeless people in Kempton with access to job and life rehabilitation programmes.
MES also focuses on a self-sustainable income for its programmes through its recycling initiative. In the next financial year, they really hope to be able to increase its funding in the corporate and government sector.
What services does MES offer to homeless people?
MES believes it is important to break a culture of “hand-outs”. We work closely with our clients (learners and adults) to help them pay for the needs they have. This restores dignity and self-worth.
Services for learners:
After-school Centre: Homework and exam assistance is provided to poor and vulnerable children. Our facility can accommodate 25 children daily, and each child receives a meal (no cost involved for the parents, but it involves a registration process).
Food Parcel Project: MES provides weekly food parcels to 50 poor families with children (no cost involved for the client – but it involves a strict registration process every six months).
Services for adults:
Grow Job Rehabilitation Programme: Daily workshops and enrichment programmes are hosted, together with the provision of cash in hand job opportunities. In the end, the programme changes unemployable individuals into employable individuals who can be placed into suitable jobs so they can reintegrate back into society (no cost).
Overnight shelter: Overnight shelters are available for 39 homeless men and 10 women (R20 per night).
Food Parcel Project: Weekly food parcels are given to 10 elderly individuals who live in the city (No cost involved for the client, but it involves a strict registration process every six months).
Community kitchen: Cooked meals for the homeless or unemployed (R5 per meal).
Clothing Bank: MES provides clothes to the needy who are identified through our various projects. Clothes are also provided if an urgent need is identified in other organisations and churches. Assistance is given in disaster cases, such as floods.
Visit mes.org.za for more information.
