Khanyisa Trust

     Who we are

     Feeding Programme

     Khanyisa Employment Initiatives

     Spiritual outreach

     Future plans, new projects

     Funding and governance

     Contributing to Khanyisa Trust

Who we are                                                         Back to top

Khanyisa is the Zulu word for "Spreading the light". Khanyisa Trust is a non-profit Christian organization  registered in terms of the Trust Property Control Act of South Africa and audited according to the requirements of the act. Our area of operation is in Edenvale, a municipality in the metropolitan area of Ekurhuleni, east of Johannesburg.

The people that we serve are the unemployed, homeless, physically ill often with AIDS-related complications, street children and those marginalised by imprisonment and substance addictions. Through our contact with these people we endeavour to bring them into rehabilitation, providing food, training and development. In many instances we find employment for them.

We give support to a number of other charities operating in the area. These include the Edenvale Care Center, where a group of nurses cares for 70 AIDS patients. 

Khanyisa Trust was created by combining two existing charities that complemented one another:

1) HOPE (Help for Out of Work People in Edenvale), which was founded in 1990. Its objectives were to assist unemployed people get work by providing skills training, develop markets for hand crafts, bring job seekers and employers together and provide food for unemployed people.

 2) Manna Centre of Concern, which was founded in 1992. Its objectives were to operate a successful community feeding scheme in Edenvale, teach vocational skills and promote spiritual renewal through the Christian message.

Feeding programme                                            Back to top

The Khanyisa Trust feeding scheme provides a square meal for up to 200 people per day, six days per week. Our cooking and dining facilities at Khanyisa House are limited and some days we have up to three sittings.  

Our full time administrator runs the everyday operations assisted by volunteers. Some food is bought using the proceeds of fund raising and cash donations. The rest is collected from donors including local supermarkets. They cook the food and serve it to the people seated at the tables.

The volunteers and financial support are drawn from eight participating churches in the Edenvale area:

Khanyisa Employment Initiatives                        Back to top

In the afternoons after the feeding is cleared away, we take out the sewing machines. We teach up to 10 women sewing and related skills. This enables them to make clothes for their loved ones, and items for sale. The trainees are needy women who make use of our feeding scheme. Occasionally we get commercial needlework orders that the sewing section will fill.

Under the guidance of an experienced cobbler we offer training in the manufacture of shoes and other leather goods, such as handbags and purses. This facility is well equipped, and also makes shoes for people with foot problems who cannot wear shoes bought in a shop. The items made in this workshop are sold at fetes, bazaars and flea markets. Currently the workshop is accommodated in municipal premises remote from Khanyisa House. Building extensions are required to bring this activity under the same roof.

Khanyisa also runs an employment bureau for the people we feed. We register up to 100 unemployed people per month and are able to place about 20% of them in jobs.

Spiritual outreach.                                                Back to top

Khanyisa is a Christian organization that reaches out to the most needy in our community. We recognize these people's basic and most desperate need for Jesus Christ. Before the daily meal a short Gospel message is brought to them in appropriate language by volunteer preachers. 

Mother tongue bibles are distributed when available. The people are often amazed that the Bible is printed in their own indigenous language, of which there are many in South Africa. Some of them have never held a Bible in their hand. Some are illiterate, and for these we show bible and related life skills films.

Food distribution Every month we pack two hundreds food parcels. These are distributed to the elderly and destitute in Tembisa on the outskirts of Johannesburg and to the Aurora School, and orphanage in Babsfontein. We also pack a weekly food parcel for those in our own community that are unable to come to Khanyisa House for food, and we provide about 30 packed lunches for patients waiting in line at the Edenvale Clinic.

Future plans, New projects                                   Back to top

There are a number of new projects that require our attention, in Edenvale and surrounding areas. These projects are dependent on donations.

The most promising project is to extend our help to Tembisa through the establishment of a satellite feeding scheme, which will also feed about 200 people per day for 6 days a week. For this we require capital to build a kitchen and ongoing funds to purchase food.

We need to enlarge Khanyisa House to accommodate the serving of more meals, and to provide more space for administration and storage, and to accommodate the sewing and leather work under one roof.

Within the scope of our outreach mission of feeding the hungry and enabling people to be skilled for life, there are still a large number of people we are not helping but who are nevertheless reachable from our position in the local community. In order to reach further out we need to expand our whole infrastructure – we require more space, more equipment, more volunteers, more food, more clothing and of course more money.

There are also many new areas where we can contribute, for example, winter in Johannesburg is harsh. We are well positioned to distribute warm clothing and blankets to street children, the homeless and shack dwellers.

Funding and governance                                       Back to top

Khanyisa Trust (trust number IT10556/00) was registered in May 2000 in terms of the Trust Property Control Act of South Africa. Khanyisa Trust is thus a legally constituted non-profit entity governed by a Board of Trustees whose fiduciary duties are similar to those of directors of a company. Our accounts are audited annually by a registered auditor. 

Khanyisa’s operating cost for the financial year ending March 2006 was R268000, approximately $37000. Sources of funding were:

Lump sum funding for capital projects such as buildings, furniture and equipment has in the past come from organizations that include the Presbyterian Mission in London, Rotary Clubs local and international, and others. Donors of projects will be given full details as to how the funds will be used, and a full account is given to them of the actual expenditure.

As with most charities in South Africa, our needs outweigh our income. The more we have, the more people we will be able to assist.

Trustees

The Board of Trustees of Khanyisa Trust reflects the churches that support us. The current trustees are:

Contact:

  Mike Faure

e-mail: mike@khanyisatrust.org

Phone/fax: +27 11-452 6176

58 Seventh Avenue, Edenvale, Gauteng, South Africa

Postal address:     

PO Box 4346, 1610 Edenvale,     Gauteng, South Africa

Contributing to the work of Khanyisa Trust

Making a donation to Khanyisa Trust is an opportunity to become a part of the work of this organisation. If you would like to contribute to the work of Khanyisa Trust, you can transfer money into our account given below, or contact Mike Faure for details of projects and developments that require funding.

Khanyisa Trust account details in South Africa:

Bank: Nedbank

Branch: Edenvale 

Account: 1910276146

Back to top