“No one has become poor by giving.” How a break-in changed my heart

Donna Oakes was outraged. She’d just moved into her new home in Southfield, Cape Town, when someone broke in and made away with her family’s most precious belongings. Oakes’ immediate suspicion was the informal settlement 400 metres down the road. Determined to get her things back, she set out to question people. What Oakes discovered there altered her life forever. 

“My heart was changed by the degree of poverty the community was living in,” Oakes says. Her own losses paled in comparison to the little they had to survive off. Realising how much she still had to offer, Oakes began handing sandwiches out on weekends. Her project, Alms of Love, began in 2016. During a joy-filled Christmas party at the end of that year, Oakes decided to take her charity a step further.

Since then, Oakes has been dishing out hot plates of food to the community of Victoria Lodge three times a week. But her efforts do more than feed people. Through her Facebook page, she rallies others to assist the underprivileged by handing out food parcels and toiletries as well as running youth camps. By opening our hearts the way Oakes has, we can enrich the lives of the people around us. “No one has ever become poor by giving,” she says.