Having spent years on the street as a beggar, Sizwe Yolo knows the struggle of having to go to sleep with no food to eat.
Having experienced those hardships at first hand, Yolo has dedicated his spare time to running a soup kitchen that feeds more than 100 poor and homeless children and elderly people in Duncan Village.
After spending four years on the street, Yolo’s life changed after he joined a boxing team at a church in Duncan Village.
He had always been interested in sport and boxing helped him get off the streets.
“I used to beg for money and food on the street for four years. It was a difficult time and I never thought I’d be able to change my life or even be able to change the lives of others,” said Yolo.
“Boxing requires discipline; you need to be able to wake up and decide every day that you are going to training.”
Yolo was able to turn his life around and has been working in merchandising at the Vincent Spar for eight years now. He spends most of his time at work, church and boxing.
It was at church that he met people from his community who were facing bigger problems than his, and this inspired him to help others.
He made a list of people from his church and community who needed help and started collecting donations for them.
His list ranged from elderly people who needed groceries, to children who had no clothing or were ill and needed medical care.
He would collect about R500 to help each person on his list.
This was not enough for the 30-year-old though, as he wanted to do something bigger that would impact more people.
After talking to his good friend Johnny Kruger, who was already running various projects in Dorchester Heights, Yolo then started a soup kitchen in 2012.
He soon realised that providing meals every day required a lot of funding, so he approached management at the Spar where he works and the store agreed to donate edible leftover food.
The department of social development later heard of the project and provided him with funding of R25000.
Yolo said the funding had helped him grow and enabled him to create employment for people in the community.
The department also pays stipends to the volunteers.
“I not only feed children but also adults now,” he said.
Community member Nolusindiso Noqoli said people and projects such as Yolo’s made a difference by uplifting the community in Duncan Village, where poverty and unemployment were big problems.
Yolo added that his ultimate goal was to help young children as he understood what it was like to grow up with nothing.
“I try and read a lot of inspirational books to motivate me each day. The book I am reading reminds me every day that in the little world that you live in, the little differences you make count the most.” — qaqambam@dispatch.co.za