Converting Containers helps create a sustainable future for many

Breadline Africa buys second hand wind and water tight shipping containers with donations we receive. We  enthusiastically refurbish them into functional structures that the communities can use as a springboard towards a sustainable future.

It requires an investment of time and money to recycle a container, but the rewards are remarkable. The containers can be recycled into classrooms, health clinics, community centres, soup kitchens, libraries, ablution blocks – which are just some of their many, versatile uses.

Please click on this link to DONATE or click here for more information on How You Can Help Breadline Africa Recycle Containers?

You can support Breadline Africa from anywhere in the world and your gift will help us to provide needy communities with priceless facilities.

Breadline Africa’s Facebook Campaign: Help us build a soup kitchen

If you want to eliminate hunger, everybody has to be involved
– Bono

Whilst I don’t usually begin a blog post quoting Bono, I think our latest FB campaign calls for it. One of Breadline Africa’s main projects is converting containers into soup kitchens, clinics, Educare centers and libraries and placing them in impoverished communities that will utilize these containers in order to improve their quality of life.

Now YOU can help convert a container.

Now YOU can help eliminate hunger.

We are launching our Facebook campaign today. Just become a fan of our Facebook page, check out the uploaded images and tag the part of the container you want to help donate. You can choose from donating towards an air vent or helping paint the container or making sure there are windows or even assisting with the flooring.

The names of those that helped convert this container into a soup kitchen will be placed
on a plaque inside the container.

So help us build a soup kitchen and be immortalized for life…it doesn’t get better than this.

Support Breadline Africa in doit4charity

Ever wanted to  run, walk, paddle, swim or cycle for charity? Ever dreamt of doing something crazy like bungee jumping or skydiving for charity?

Now, thanks to doit4charity, you can.

People can set up their own fundraising blog on their website free of charge, choose the charity of their choice (provided it is a registered South African non-profit) and begin their fundraising efforts. Anyone who wants to support may donate any amount online by credit card, through their SSL secure system, or make a direct deposit into their bank account.

Our very own director, Tim Smith, will be doing his bit for charity (and working up a sweat) as he is participating in the Cape Argus this year. Another one of our great supporters, Morne Nortje, will also be riding in the Cape Argus. So show some support for these athletes…and help us fight poverty at the same time.

Ard Matthews from Just Jinjer visits Breadline Africa offices

Ard Matthews from Just Jinjer handing over signed shirt to Marianna Boguslavsky

Unless you have been hiding under some rock, you would have heard all about the online and sms competition that we have been running for the whole of this month. Basically, you can win an evening with your favourite local celebrity (just imagine playing pool and drinking beers with Just Jinjer!). The details are here (http://www.breadlineafrica.org/celebs) so check out the competition, sms/donate online, and stand a chance to win a really awesome night out.

The participating celebrities have been really generous with their support. Ard Matthews has donated a golf shirt he wore to the Nelson Mandela Invitational and this shirt will be auctioned at the 27dinner at the Wild Fig. I had the pleasure of meeting him as unlike other celebs who might have their assistants do everything for them, he popped by our offices himself, said hi to the team and even posed for a photo with me.

Bailey Schneider and Heinz Winckler have also donated some special personal items and our Facebook auction group will go live next week where you will have the opprtunity to bid on these momentos…highest bid gets the prize.

Help Breadline Africa end poverty and win a night on the town with your favourite celeb

We are launching our first ever sms campaign (with an online component) this month…it goes LIVE today! We want to take you out to dinner with one of your favourite local celebs. All you need to do is to make a small, or big (the bigger the better!) donation towards alleviating poverty in Africa and you could win an evening out with Just Jinjer, Heinz Winckler, Sasha Martinengo or 94.7 Highveld Stereo’s Bailey Schneider.

The competition runs from 1 – 28 February 2010, and to enter simply donate to Breadline Africa via SMS (36010) or on our website, www.breadlineafrica.org/celebs. The more you donate, the better your chances to win the prize. And don’t forget to choose which celeb you would like to meet if you win: you do this by including the correct code (JINJER, HEINZ, SASHA or BAILEY) if you enter by SMS, or checking the appropriate tick box if you enter online.

We are thrilled at the support we have received from these South African role models. The competition winners are guaranteed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity – as well as changing lives through their donations to Breadline Africa.

MXit, the global mobile social networking and instant messenger, has joined forces with us to help generate support in the fight against poverty in Africa, by promoting the competition to its three-quarters of a million music lovers. The MXit Music community will be encouraged to open their hearts and SMS the short-code, adding their support to stop African poverty in its tracks – while having the opportunity to engage for an evening, with some of South Africa’s best music talent.

Breadline Africa to launch Twitter competition in January

Last year, Breadline Africa was the first NPO to be featured on Idea Bounty. We had an influx of amazing and creative ideas outlining various ways of raising funds online and Shaun Dunne emerged as the clear winner. This year we are proud to launch this winning idea. Shaun has created the web application using the Twitter API for this competition and the premise is pretty simple:
1. Ten people will sign up (these 10 people will be chosen from the Breadline Africa followers on Twitter and a DM will be sent to them)

2. Once the chosen ten have signed up, they will receive an email to let them know the competition has started, they have 48 hours to raise as much funds as possible and they need to get their followers to donate in their name so they can win the coveted prize. The email will also include their unique link.

3. These ten tweet their link – or direct people to the site.

4. People have 48 hours to donate and get their followers to donate.

5. The winner is the one with the most donations in his/her name.

What we loved about this idea is that it’s an original one, we like the limited time component and the fact that only ten people are chosen and that they need to urge their followers to donate, help Breadline Africa raise funds and help them win the prize.

So follow us on Twitter and you just might get chosen…

The website revamp

If you are one of the many loyal visitors to the website then you might have noticed that we have been making some snazzy changes. Our talented tech team has been hard at work and revamping the site one small change at a time. For those perceptive enough, you might have already checked out the following:

• The Media Room now has YouTube and Flickr functionality (for those wanting to stay up to date with all our  latest site visits and happenings)
• Each page displays a newsletter sign up tab in the right hand corner (you know you can’t live without your monthly dose of Breadline Africa news)
• Our blog has a much cleaner, edgier and more modern design. The layout is user friendly so now it is super easy to sign up for the RSS feed, read the posts and submit comments.

That is just the beginning. As we want our fantastic donors and visitors to the website to have the most informative and interactive experience, we will soon go live with GOIP tagging, new ‘About Us’ section and the much awaited for online direct debits page (an easy way for anyone wanting to donate monthly but without the hassle and effort required to go online every time you want to donate and help our impoverished communities).

The Idea Bounty winner interview

After days of reading, deliberating and sifting through some brilliant ideas, the Breadline Africa team has finally chosen the Idea Bounty winner! I am pleased to announce that Shaun Dunne is the guy behind the winning idea and he will be walking away with the much coveted prize. I had the opportunity to interview him this week so you could learn more about the man who beat out so many others to get his hands on the $1,500 bounty:

Tell us a little bit about yourself and what lead you to entering this competition?

I work as a PHP developer in the UK. I love all things Web and enjoying geeking out over everything.

I came across Idea Bounty a few weeks before entering, and thought that it was great, so I knew that I had to enter something as it was a great way to challenge my creative side, as its something that I love doing, but don’t really get to express a lot of creativism where I work.

When I read the brief, I mulled over a few ideas. I wouldn’t enter the competition unles the idea had legs. Once I came up with the final idea, I knew that it was something that would work, and that I could see being adopted by other charities.

What kind of technical /online background do you have?

My background is mainly in PHP/SQL . Currently I am at the stage where I need to start developing my own applications so I can start freelancing. It’s all about trying to build up a respectable portfolio.

What was the inspiration behind this idea?

I’ve been playing around with the twitter API a lot lately, and I love what it can do with such simplicity. Plus I am a twitter addict !
I would say that TED has benn a massive inspiration for me. I hope that one day I can talk at TED and inspire others.

Did you think you had a chance to win?

The great thing about Idea Bounty is that you can’t see other ideas. You only have your own inspiration to work with. When I thought of the idea, I was sure that there was someone else that would have something similar, if not the same. I thought that there was a good chance of winning, as it was a simple implementation that had massive growth potential.

What went through your head when you learnt that you won?

I cannot wait to see it live. Like anything that you have a part in, the great reward is to see it working.

Any ideas of how you will spend your winnings?

Bills and I need to take Lee “Dungeon Master” Davis for lunch.

Inside the mind of … Alistair Fairweather

If you judge a brand by the person who represents it, then my impressions of 24.com would have to be that of professionalism, knowledgeableness and innovation. I had the pleasure of meeting up with Alistair Fairweather, the Social Media Manager for 24.com, to kick off the very first in our series of ‘Inside the mind of….’ blog posts. On a monthly basis, I will be interviewing some very smart techy people and focusing on the way NPOs could use their company’s technology and websites. Luckily for me, Alistair had agreed to give up some of his precious time to chat to me about his career, the way NPOs could utilize 24.com and his deep irritation with people who call Bing a decision engine.

Alistair studied journalism and new media at Rhodes University, worked as a web designer in the UK and upon his return to South Africa, climbed the corporate ladder at 24.com to become their Social Media Manager. Here are his thoughts on NPOs and the online world…

What are the current online trends that are relevant to your company?

That would definitely have to be the real time trend. People communicating in real time – a great example of this being the micro blogging platform Twitter. The continuous real time interactions make for a constantly changing web of trends and topics. The internet is no longer a collection of static pieces of content but something that evolves and morphs on a daily or even hourly basis. The web is increasingly about public conversations and debates – and less about the old model of mass publishing. We are harnessing these trends in our newest project, which is still very much a secret. What I can tell you is that it will use principles from services like Twitter, Friendfeed, Disqus and Squidoo, as well as plenty of our own secret sauce to introduce ordinary South Africans to real-time public conversation.

What experience have you had with NPOs?

I haven’t had that much experience with charities in my professional capacity except for the 24.com Bloggers Who Care initiative. In May 2008, a group of 24.com bloggers started a charity drive to help the needy and one of the events organized was the Midrand Mardi Gras to help a number of local charities raise money.

How would a NPO be able to utilize your website to create awareness?

Our website provides a fantastic blogging platform for NPOs. Anyone (even non techy people) can set up a blog on the blogs.24.com platform and develop a SA wide network of readers. For those preferring other blogging platforms such as Wordpress, we will soon be introducing a new feature whereby you can post a blog on Wordpress and it will be automatically published on blogs.24.com so you will be building an even bigger community around it.

In terms of your experience and your personal opinion, what websites/social media are integral to NPOs?

All charities should have a definitive blogging presence and they should be using social media such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to communicate with their potential and current donors. The great thing about having a blog on 24.com is that our blogging platform comes with a ‘built in’ audience…which is a must, especially for local charities.

Which tech businesses or websites do you think are the ones to watch now?

Well these are just some of the dozens of exciting sites out there…

http://boxee.tv/ – These convergence cowboys make it painless to watch anything you can find online on your TV, as easily as changing a channel.

http://www.spotify.com/ – Free and legal music – like Pandora or Last.fm but with a much bigger catalogue and free (ad supported)

http://posterous.com/ – A no-fuss, instant, post-via-email blogging platform with a beautiful clean design. And they integrate into the rest of your social media in a snap – really impressive in its power and simplicity.

http://www.bing.com/ - Yes, that’s right, Microsoft’s search engine. A lot of people have written it off without even trying it, but it has some great features (like comparative shopping with built-in discounts), and it’s really, really fast. I just wish they would stop calling it a decision engine – that phrase is lame.

Well for all those NPOs that were not sure about building an online presence, creating a social network and engaging the community to raise awreness and funds, now thanks to Alistair, you have a great starting point

Bloggers Unite for the Blogger Bake Off

The Worldwide Blogger Bake Off has harnessed the power of the blogosphere as Breadline Africa and the BBO are currently featured on  Bloggers Unite. Bloggers all over the world are encouraged to blog about this worthy online initiative TODAY. The Worldwide Blogger Bake Off allows people to improve the lives of poor communities from the comfort of their own home. The Breadline Africa Blogger Bake Off is a campaign that aims to raise funds to alleviate poverty in Africa.

People worldwide are being encouraged to join the Blogger Bake Off, submit their baking recipes and photos, tag other bloggers to do the same and donate online to this amazing cause. The public has the power to contribute online to Breadline Africa’s projects of converting containers into soup kitchens, classrooms and clinics.

The Breadline Africa team raises money from various parts of the world via the internet to support community projects and promote hope and sustainability in Africa.  We are hoping that by partnering with Bloggers Unite we will create the much needed awareness that will serve as a catalyst in the large scale promotion of Breadline Africa and the Blogger Bake Off.