It has raised R14-million for children’s charities since 2005 but, just shy of its 19th anniversary, StreetSmart South Africa has announced it will be closing at the end of January 2024. Its last act is the disbursement of a final R500,000 to 19 children’s charities across the country. 

The charity is yet another victim of South Africa’s flagging economy: The organisation is no longer able to cover its running costs, after funding dried up from sponsorships and fundraisers.

Founded in June 2005 by Margi Biggs, StreetSmart received widespread acclaim for helping children’s charities, specifically those doing work with vulnerable and homeless children. 

It also enjoyed celebrity support from Emeritus Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who was StreetSmart’s founding patron, and counted some of South Africa’s most beloved restaurants, accommodation establishments and wine-tasting centres as supporters: Den Anker, La Cucina di Ciro, Rust en Vrede and Lanzerac.

Funds were raised through participating restaurants that agreed to automatically add a voluntary R5 to each table bill. Diners were free to decline or donate more.

StreetSmart was unique because all the funds donated in restaurants were paid to the beneficiary organisations, which worked with children, while StreetSmart’s organisational expenses were covered by sponsorships and fundraising events.

StreetSmart’s support also helped pay the salaries of social workers, auxiliary social workers, after-school care teachers and others.

The first StreetSmart was established in the UK in 1998, raising more than £12-million over the years for Britain’s homeless and vulnerable people.

StreetSmart SA’s closure is a sad development, Biggs said philosophically, but “everything has a season and times are tough”.

“We just couldn’t keep going. While we were running, we did good work, and now it has to close. There was nothing we could do. We’d made the commitment that all the funds that we raised through the restaurants would go to our beneficiaries, so we couldn’t take any of those funds to run the organisation. We were also raising funds through other means and going to sponsors, but everybody’s trying to raise funds to run organisations so the last thing people want to sponsor is administration, which is understandable.”

The beneficiary organisations that worked with children are continuing their work, but with less funding.

Don’t give to kids on the street

Biggs said it’s not only unfortunate that their funding has dried up; they were also educating the public about issues around street children. 

“The biggest issue is that we should not be giving the kids anything on the street, because then they find their way into these agencies that can help them.”

It’s been a very difficult message for StreetSmart to continually put out there because people feel so much better when they give to the needy on the street. 

“But it doesn’t help. That was as important a message that we were putting out as the fundraising. I don’t know how much of an impact we made, but we certainly did convince some people. The problem is that in 19 years poverty has grown enormously.”

In a statement, StreetSmart board chairperson Zaid Adams said: “StreetSmart SA has always guaranteed that every rand raised by our fundraising partners would go towards helping children to build life and learning skills. Ironically, since the post-Covid bounce-back, fundraising partners have started to come on board again to play their part. But the simple reality is that in the present economic climate, financial support from other sponsors, donors and various fundraising initiatives has proved insufficient to cover our own costs. That makes it impossible for us to continue operating.”

StreetSmart has disbursed R14-million to 36 charitable organisations working with children, funding 304 programmes to improve children’s lives over the years.

That’s made a marked difference in the lives of 18,000 vulnerable children and their families.

“It is very sad, but the board is proud of the real impact we have made in children’s lives over the past almost 19 years,” Adams said. 

“We are proud of surviving Covid; and very proud that we close this chapter with a significant R500,000 donation to children’s welfare. Our heartfelt gratitude goes out to all who have supported us over the past almost 19 years and made these donations possible.” DM