Patching up South Africa one drive at a time
Patch-up calls on South Africans to treat the disadvantaged members of society with more compassion and calls on partners to assist them to run current and upcoming projects.
Patch-up South Africa is a NPO that runs programmes aimed at assisting young and disadvantaged (homeless) individuals in Pretoria.
Operating primarily in Mamelodi West and Eersterust, the organisation is “in the business of helping people” and are passionate about what they do.
The NPO was founded in 2017, by Kagiso Mahlangu who asserts that “we aim to lead these individuals to self-sustainable lives through entrepreneurship, education and employment”.
Patch-up SA currently supports over 150 beneficiaries, though founder Mahlangu confirmed that this figure often rises to over 200 a month.
The various initiatives run by the organisation are split into three main phases: the first phase being the feeding and documentation programme, the second is the wellness programme and the third assists rehabilitated people back into society.
The first phase involves running feeding schemes in areas with high volumes of homelessness and documenting these individuals to understand their problems more personally to be able to assist them further.
The second phase started recently with the assistance of a local Eersterust community figure called Mama Sofie. The wellness programme is meant to assist beneficiaries’ state of mental health.
“We are building a holistic programme that will address, spiritual (soul and spirit), mental (therapy/psychology), family intervention and physical (rehabilitation and hospital) needs of the individuals,” said Mahlangu.
The third phase assists with educational and entrepreneurial classes designed to empower and help employ the beneficiaries successful enough to re-enter the working world.
Over 10 volunteers currently work for Patch-up though the organisation states that its doors are always open to more volunteers.
This past May the organisation donated over 120 blankets and served 150 meals to homeless communities in a blanket drive run in Mamelodi and Eersterust.
“We aim to serve all homeless communities. This is our dream for the long term. For the medium term, we aim to build effective programmes through the support of like-minded partners,” said Mahlangu.
Patch-up calls on South Africans to treat the disadvantaged members of society with more compassion and calls on partners to assist them to run current and upcoming projects.
“We want to make an impact on South African homelessness and we want to partner with organisations that can help us deliver our wellness programme – rehabilitation, healthcare services, social work services, etc.
“Financial support would also be beneficial in running our food programme and day-to-day activities such as transporting the beneficiaries to hospitals and rehab,” concluded Mahlangu.
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