Swiss4Afrika – a sustainable hospitality training model

In this podcast, Brigitte Lawler from Swiss4Africa describes the work that their non-profit organization, registered in Bern, Switzerland, is currently doing in South Africa. They work with small NPO’s in South Africa to break the cycle of poverty,addressing four of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

They were founded by 5 members a year ago and at the time of founding, three of its members were based in Switzerland while the other two are on the ground in South Africa.

They work with local communities to identify their greatest needs and implement a 2-pronged approach by fixing the most urgent short-term needs and building sustainable models for the long term to get them to a point of being self-sustainable.

Their self-sustainable model depends on what best suits a particular community. Swiss4Afrika has realised that these models need to have certain elements:

1. Create an ability to generate income / provide resources to the community so they are not reliant on donations.
2. Develops skills for members of the community that they can apply to contribute to their community well-being. These skills should be transferable so that it enables them to be employable outside of the community.
3. Creates employment opportunities and experience building for members while they are living in the community.

One of their communities is called Soli Deo Gloria Care Centre (Soli), based in Lydenburg. Swiss4Afrika formed an alliance with a global organisation called Meals on Wheels, a type of soup kitchen for the frail and poor in the area. With this alliance, they will be able to train people in kitchen skills and provide a much needed service to the local population.

Randel van Heerden, Director of Swiss4Afrika:

Randel has volunteered in some interesting places around the world. In South Africa he volunteered as a policeman to assist investigations in crimes committed against children. Randel moved to the Philippines with his wife and volunteered to build a school for the poor on a garbage dump in Manila.

With others, he assisted in delivering aid to affected people each time a typhoon blew through Manila. In Guatemala he assisted an NGO called Constru Casa to build homes for the poor. In the Ivory Coast, Randel headed up a team of volunteers who helped to renovate the Abidjan zoo. He was sponsored by the Swiss and German embassies as well as the Calao Foundation in Luxembourg, the San Diego Zoo in the USA and private donors. In 2022, Randel and his wife moved to Switzerland and started Swiss4Afrika.

Brigitte Lawler, Director of Swiss4Afrika:

Brigitte Lawler is the founder of Legenda solutions-focused consultancy specializing in business growth, scaling tech companies and transforming business for the digital world. Having worked in more than 30 countries and lived in 4, Brigitte has developed a global perspective to business in different markets. Brigitte is able to draw on experience as a Global Transformation Manager across several business and functional areas, as well as adapting those skills and competencies in the world of Entrepreneurs and Start-Ups. As a founding member and director of a Non-Profit Organisation, Brigitte equally applies her expertise on organizational, process and people development in an effort to alleviate poverty. Key-note speaker and author.