#bethefamily
Our story
Find out more about the mission of Life Changer: working to prevent homelessness, and for our unhoused friends to find their way back home.
"God sets the lonely into Family" Psalm 68:8
#bethefamily
Three people, a lot of coffee and a single conviction
Where did we come from?
In 2017, three people in our city all felt a call to work with those living on, and at risk of living on, the streets of Pietermaritzburg. These three strangers-who-became-family were Rob Ng-Yu-Tin, Caroline Holley and Thami Gcwabaza. Through a common friend/church leader, and after numerous coffees and conversations, Life Changer was born.
The general feeling was:
- We'd offer a hand up and not hand out.
- The project was open to any fellow Christians who also felt called to work with unhoused people.
- We would offer a safe place, where vulnerable people would feel a sense of family.
- There had to be dignity in everything we offered: a way to earn support, a way to choose what you received and a way to choose a pathway to recovery.
We didn't know it then, but it became the voucher earning and redemption program. We didn't know it then, but we had just started a program that would spearhead so much in our city. We just stepped out in faith and obedience to a call to love the orphan and the widow.
We started out of the boot of a vehicle, and sitting on camping chairs by a roadside.
Then moved to Selgro Spar's storeroom.
And then moved to Levy Street, our current home.
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Take a virtual tour of the Life Changer HQ and Life Boat
Homelessness is a relationship problem before it's a housing problem.
We chose the name Life Changer because we’ve seen that a single connection can rewrite a person's entire future.
To many, "homelessness" is a housing problem. To us, it is a relationship problem. When a person is uprooted from family or community, their world stops. By stepping into that gap—whether on a street corner or in a foster home—we aren't just providing a service; we are offering a turning point.
As a Christian organisation, we believe that God is the ultimate Life Changer. We are simply his hands and feet, working to ensure that:
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Isolation becomes belonging.
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Vulnerability becomes security.
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The "lonely" are set into families.
We don't just want to change someone’s circumstances for a day; we want to change their life story forever.
