The student organisation Listen with your heart has recently increased in volunteer numbers and is calling on more students in an effort to give sandwiches, soup, coffee and conversation to those less fortunate.
The group of students from Stellenbosch University (SU) take to the streets every Wednesday at 19:15 to make the lives of the homeless a little better. The team meets at the Nouveau apartment complex and from there they set out to different areas where some homeless people sleep in groups.
The students draw up a food and beverage budget with money from their own pockets and take turns to buy and prepare the meals.
Kelly Lezar (24), an occupational therapy student, said: “The more time you spend with the homeless, the more you realise that even though they come from different social classes or backgrounds, they are actually just like you. They want to be treated with dignity”.
WATCH: The Listen with your heart team take to the streets of Stellenbosch to help the homeless.
Listen with your heart started in July last year on a very cold night, when Duvan van Breda (22), a Bcom Entrepreneurship student and Jessie Potgieter (21), an actuarial science student, decided that the homeless people on the streets of Stellenbosch needed to warm up with some hot chocolate.
From that first act of kindness, the group has grown into a team of 30 strong and they aim to see this number double.
“We hope to get the university’s residences more involved. So far, we have had Lydia and Wilgenhof help us to make sandwiches”, said Potgieter.
Chandra Ngomane (19), a visual arts and jewellery design student, said that going out to the homeless and speaking to them has broken the barrier of how the volunteers see the homeless.
“We often judge them but we don’t understand their story.”
The Listen with your heart team dishing out some much needed food at Die Braak. PHOTO: Chandra Ngomane.
Lezar said that there is a greater need to reach out and help the people living on the street.
“We received numbers from the municipality. There are about 400 people living on the streets in Stellenbosch, and the only shelter in town can take a maximum of 65 people. That means there are a lot of people with nowhere to go.”
To find out more, contact Kelly Lezar on 074 608 1812 or Jessie Potgieter on 083 229 7711 or visit their Instagram page @lwh_stb.