Three Cape Town homeless shelters kickstarted their projects for 2007 with a much-needed financial injection from StreetSmart, a fundraising initiative in aid of the street children in Cape Town, involving leading restaurants.
StreetSmart raised R150 000 from 26 Cape Town restaurants endorsing its charitable cause over the past year.
Launched in 2005 under the patronage of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, the NGO recruits restaurateurs to help raise funds in aid of The Homestead, Ons Plek and Learn to Live, three organisations committed to the social development and rehabilitation of Cape Town street children.
Funds are raised through participating restaurants adding an optional R5 donation to each table's bill. This donation is left to the complete discretion of the diners who are also able to contribute more if they so wish.
Each of the three beneficiaries received a R50 000 contribution from the project.
Learn to Live, which provides education for abandoned children, will spend the money on educational workshops and life skills training in the months to come.
The Homestead, with its mission to help homeless boys reconstruct their lives, will invest in its family re-integration programme while Ons Plek, a shelter that takes in homeless girls, aims to improve its community re-integration programme.
The StreetSmart concept hit South African shores thanks to local businesswoman Margi Biggs, who founded the project after an overseas trip. Dining in a London restaurant, she spotted a card on the table that encouraged patrons to add a small amount to their bill in aid of homeless children, which inspired her to bring the initiative home.
"We must congratulate the restaurants for doing such a sterling job and I foresee them making an even bigger impact in contributing to normalising the lives of some of the destitute kids living on our streets. It has been most heartening to see how Capetonians and visitors alike have taken StreetSmart on board," said Biggs.
StreetSmart, which also operates in the United Kingdom, San Francisco and Melbourne, ensures that every cent donated by diners goes towards upliftment projects, with corporate sponsor Specialised Tours & Events taking care of all the administrative costs.
For more information, contact StreetSmart SA on 021 434 1144, send email to [email protected] visit www.streetsmartsa.org.za