The 702 Jozi My Jozi Walk the talk invites you not just to walk, but also to get involved by making a difference in the life of a homeless person in the Joburg inner city.
Many of us respond to homelessness with compassion, offering money, food, or clothing to individuals on the street.
While compassionate giving comes from a good place, it can “enable chronic homelessness”.
Responsible giving, using Mi-Change vouchers, shifts the focus from short-term relief to long-term transformation. The Mi-Change voucher system, which is hosted by Zlto, has been developed in partnership with organisations like MES and U-Turn.
Mi-Change vouchers are a cashless way to give, allowing you a way to support people experiencing homelessness while connecting them to meaningful services.
Unlike cash, vouchers are intentionally designed to:
Homelessness in South Africa is a growing and complex crisis, deeply rooted in poverty, unemployment, inequality, and urbanisation. According to recent national data, more than 55,000 people were experiencing homelessness in South Africa in 2022, a sharp increase from just over 13,000 in 1996. www.timeslive.co.za
Urban centres carry the greatest burden. Gauteng alone accounts for nearly half of the country’s homeless population, with the City of Johannesburg representing approximately 15.6% of all homeless people nationally. However, these numbers are widely understood to be underestimates. Many people living in informal settlements, abandoned buildings, or so-called “hijacked buildings” are not fully counted in official statistics. These buildings, often unsafe and without basic service, have become a desperate alternative for those who cannot access housing. www.statssa.gov.za
The human cost of this crisis is severe. A tragic example is the 2023 Johannesburg inner-city building fire, where more than 70 people, many of them homeless, lost their lives in overcrowded and unsafe conditions. This disaster exposed the urgent need for systemic housing solutions and coordinated support services. en.wikipedia.org
Addressing homelessness requires far more than temporary relief. It requires:
Organisations like MES (Mould Empower Serve), U-Turn and Mi-Change play a critical role in this ecosystem by providing holistic, long-term interventions that move individuals from the street into sustainable independence.
Many South Africans respond to homelessness with compassion, offering money, food, or clothing to individuals on the street. While well-intentioned, this form of giving can have unintended consequences. Research and programme experience show that large amounts of money are given directly to people living on the streets each year, estimated at over R200 million annually in Cape Town alone. michange.org
However, studies and practitioner insights indicate that:
While compassionate giving comes from a good place, it can “enable chronic homelessness” by sustaining life on the street rather than helping people exit it. This does not mean compassion is wrong, it means that how we give matters deeply. northernnews.co.za
Responsible giving shifts the focus from short-term relief to long-term transformation. One of the most effective tools supporting this approach is the Mi-Change voucher system which is hosted Zlto, developed in partnership with organisations like MES and U-Turn.
Unlike cash, vouchers are intentionally designed to:
1. Meet Immediate Needs with Dignity
Vouchers provide basic essentials, food, hygiene, and shelter, restoring dignity while addressing urgent needs.
2. Connect People to Support Services
Every voucher redemption creates a point of contact with organisations like MES, where individuals can access:
3. Break Cycles of Dependency
By removing cash from the equation, vouchers reduce the likelihood of funds being used to sustain addiction or street-based survival.
4. Create a Pathway Off the Streets
Mi-Change emphasises that a voucher is not just a transaction, it is “the start of a journey” toward independence and reintegration.
5. Reduce Street Solicitation
By encouraging communities to give responsibly, vouchers help shift the system away from street-based begging toward structured support and development.
MES (Mould Empower Serve) is a Christian social development organisation committed to restoring dignity and creating sustainable pathways out of homelessness.
Through its 4 Phase integrated model, MES provides:
Most importantly, MES does not only respond to the symptoms of homelessness, it addresses the root causes, helping individuals rebuild their lives with dignity and purpose.
Homelessness is one of the most visible and pressing challenges in our cities. While the scale of the problem can feel overwhelming, every individual has the power to make a meaningful difference.
When you give:
Compassion changes lives; but responsible compassion transforms futures.
Homelessness is one of the most visible and pressing challenges in our cities. While the scale of the problem can feel overwhelming, every individual has the power to make a meaningful difference.
Many South Africans respond to homelessness with compassion, offering money, food, or clothing to individuals on the street. While well-intentioned, this form of giving can have unintended consequences. The opportunity to contribute meaningfully to homeless is made possible trough the Zlto platform. Zlto enables South Affricans to choose responsible giving over compationate giving.
The Zlto platform provides a transparent, trustworthy and accountable as an enabler for donations to be made digitally and it interacts with the key enablers who work with people experiencing homelessness as illustrated below.
The benefit of this approach is that each part contributes a different strength. Zlto provides the technology and scalability. MiChange provides the voucher model, partner network, training and quality assurance. Service providers deliver the human support and developmental pathway. Together, this creates a model that is more accountable than cash giving, more structured than one-off relief, and more likely to support real movement out of homelessness because it links compassion, services and progression in a coordinated way.
MES: Changing the Heart of the City: MES is a Christ-centred non-profit organisation that has been addressing systemic poverty and homelessness in South Africa’s inner cities since 1986, driving essential social change through a focused and integrated model. Through its two business units, MES Ignite and MES Restore, the organisation provides both prevention and restoration pathways. MES Ignite focuses on education, youth development, and family preservation to prevent generational poverty, while MES Restore offers a structured four-phase pathway out of homelessness. MES serves children, youth, vulnerable families, and individuals experiencing homelessness across Gauteng, the Western Cape, and the Eastern Cape, remaining committed to building thriving inner-city communities through effective and sustainable pathways out of poverty and homelessness.
U-turn is a thriving non-profit that exist to give homeless people the skills to overcome homelessness. Founded in 1997, U-turn believes in life after homelessness – that every homeless individual should have access to an effective pathway that addresses their physical, spiritual and emotional needs so they can leave the streets and become a long-term productive member of society. To help people overcome homelessness U-turn operates a phased rehabilitation programme that gives individuals new ways of thinking via our drop-in Service Centres, shelter placements, recovery support, and work opportunities at U-turn Social Enterprises where candidates can test and apply the training they’ve received. The programme is yielding wonderful results. Our candidates typically graduate into open market employment and show an 80%+ long term success rate.
Mi-change is an innovative social impact initiative aimed at addressing homelessness through responsible and dignified giving. Instead of giving cash directly, Mi-change provides vouchers that can be redeemed for essential goods and services, while also acting as a referral pathway to support programmes that help individuals move off the streets. By combining compassion with accountability, Mi-Change empowers the public to give in a way that creates meaningful, long-term change. The model not only supports people experiencing homelessness but also partners with local organisations to provide access to rehabilitation, skills development, and reintegration opportunities. We believe that small acts of giving, when done thoughtfully, can contribute to lasting transformation in our communities.
Zlto is the platform that rewards progress — turning everyday positive actions into real benefits, and giving you a way to support someone else’s journey forward. Most loyalty and incentive programmes reward those who already have. Zlto flips the script.
We reward the ones who are building. The ones saving. The ones learning. The ones showing up for themselves and their communities.
For the everyday hustler choosing health. For the entrepreneur chasing opportunity. For families pushing for better. For communities lifting each other up.
No status required. Just drive. Zlto brings together banks, retailers, and change-makers who believe in people power — backing real progress where it matters most.
Because every step forward should count. And every step forward can be supported. One healthy habit. One smart move. One brave decision at a time.
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It provides the digital infrastructure that makes donations allocation, earning, redemption and tracking possible at scale. This gives the model greater transparency, better traceability, and more flexibility than a paper-only system, while also making it easier to manage reporting and future growth.
MiChange runs the voucher system, connecting orgnisations interested in becoming an authorised service provider with the Zlto platform. MiChange identifies and selects service providers, trains them to use the system, and provides ongoing quality assurance through site visits and arranging mystery client visits. MiChange helps ensure that vouchers are not redeemed in isolation, but within a network of approved partners that can offer appropriate support.
MiChange runs the voucher system, connecting orgnisations interested in becoming an authorised service provider with the Zlto platform. MiChange identifies and selects service providers, trains them to use the system, and provides ongoing quality assurance through site visits and arranging mystery client visits. MiChange helps ensure that vouchers are not redeemed in isolation, but within a network of approved partners that can offer appropriate support.
