Happy 10th birthday to MES Kempton Park
Apart from the Winter Hope campaign, MES still serves food to the people living on the streets daily between 13:00 and 17:00, which is dependent on the donations the branch receives.
An anonymous quote speaks to a universal truth: “Helping one person might not change the whole world, but it could change the world for one person.”
The mind simply cannot fathom the worlds changed by MES Kempton Park who featured in a global birthday celebration of 35 years tending to the mission to Mould Empower Serve.
The local branch gave a ballpark number of the lives they touched among the inner-city homeless in Kempton Park during their 10 years of existence under the wider umbrella network.
According to Luwanda Conco, the marketing assistant at MES Kempton Park, in the period since 2017 their team has assisted the following ways:
• Provided shelter to 3 479 people
• Provided GROW shifts to 1 147 people
• Assisted 1 454 families with monthly food parcels
• Assisted 78 children with support at the After School Programme
• Reached 1 159 people during street outreaches
• Provided clothes to 1 401 people
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MES Kempton Park offers a school feeding programme at Laerskool Kreft Primary for disadvantaged children. They offer shelter, food and enrichment courses to 40 homeless men to get them on the road to recovery and restoration. Through their GROW and Recycling Job Rehabilitation programme, they offer a supported job opportunity structure for those who are getting back on their feet.
Current MES beneficiaries
MES has a total of 169 beneficiaries. The numbers broken down per programme are:
• Learners’ focus group (school nutrition) – 64 learners
• Youth and adults’ focus group (including shelter and GROW) – 40 people. However, they are looking to grow this number to a total of 55 before the end of the year.
• Families at risk focus group (including food parcel programme) – 55. An extra 10 food parcels are included dependent on food donations received.
After School ProgrammeDue to the pandemic, the After School Programme is closed and has not been running since the start of 2021.
“We have redirected our support to the feeding scheme at Laerskool Kreft Primary, providing them with daily lunches for a total of 64 learners. The meals include a sandwich, juice and fruit/snack,” Conco explained.
MES “Graduates”
Conco said it is difficult to indicate how many people are ready to move on to more stable employment or housing from MES. She said most of the individuals who receive employment are on short-term contracts and those who do receive permanent jobs are not paid enough to make it completely on their own.
“However, we have transformed our building at 72 Kempton Road to a more independent form of living for those we feel are more stable than the regular shelter client,” Conco added.
MES Outreach Programmes
Due to the lockdown, a decision was taken to bring a halt to the outreaches, which include the shelter and street outreaches.
“However, with the Winter Hope campaign officially launched on June 1, as MES Kempton Park we will have soup outreaches for June, every Friday. Strict Covid-19 regulations will be followed (masks on to enter premises, social distancing and sanitising).”
Apart from the Winter Hope campaign, MES still serves food to the people living on the streets daily between 13:00 and 17:00, which is dependent on the donations the branch receives.
“Apart from the shelter expansion, we are still planning on establishing a charity shop. The Mandela Day campaign, which we will be launching in July, will contribute greatly to the success of this expansion. Our goal with the campaign is to get 9 000 individuals to make a once-off R100 donation towards our branch which, when calculated, will give us R900 000.”
Future expansion at MES Kempton Park celebrating 10 years.
MES opened a satellite branch in Kempton Park in August 2010. Over the past 10 years, MES has seen a lot of lives being changed.
“We can only thank the community of Kempton Park for taking hands and walking the journey with us. As we look forward to another 35 years as MES, we wish to challenge our Kempton Park branch to get involved. Come visit us, lend a hand and let’s change our city for the better,” Conco said.
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