On Saturday, the 30th of September 2017, The Greater Tygerberg Partnership (GTP) hosted a Heritage month braai with a difference! The Bellville CBD is home to over 700 homeless people, who share the area with business, civil society and academic institutions. Our goal was to honour the spirit of Heritage month by creating an opportunity for connection between these groups. And how better to do it than over some coals.
Connecting through food and fun
We wanted to create a safe space for our homeless and student communities to interact, learn from, and connect with each other. To do this, the GTP teamed up with 12 lively CPUT students from Kruskal House Residence (Bellville) to arrange a braai on the M.E.S Safe Space property. We were also joined by Craig Kingsley, GTP Board member and Bishop Bernie Lutuli from the New Apostolic Church.
We spent a wonderful, warm afternoon braaiing together, and saved the leftovers for those who couldn’t join us. Warren Hewitt, CEO of the GTP, was on hand to offer sage braaiing advice and make a delicious potjie of relish for the boerewors rolls.
Our homeless guests enjoyed the opportunity to cook their own food. It’s not something they get to do very often, and they appreciated the confidence boosting chance to prepare their own meal.
We ended the day with a fun prize giving ceremony, during which spot prizes were awarded to both the homeless and students alike.
A word of thanks to our sponsors
We are very grateful to the wonderful sponsors who helped make this event possible; County Fair, Brito’s and Brights in Boston.
Each homeless person also received a goodie bag, sponsored by the GTP, with some essentials, as well as a GTP cap and t-shirt.
More braaiing to come!
This was such a positive experience that the GTP donated three Barrel deluxe braais to the M.E.S shelter to help them host more braais over the coming summer months.
The GTP will be hosting more events like this throughout the summer, and we’d love to invite you to join us.
If you would like to volunteer or donate to this worthy cause, please let us know at
Learn more
To learn more about M.E.S and how to support them, please visit www.mes.org.za
To learn more about The Greater Tygerberg Partnership and how you can get involved, please visit gtp.org.za or contact us on 021 832 6713.
