​The Lesedi Community Centre (LCC) is a non-profit organisation based in Heidelberg that focuses on the feeding and sheltering homeless people.
The centre was established in 2017 and is funded by the Gauteng Department of Social Development. Since then, it has been working to change lives of individuals who found themselves on the streets, with no place to call home. At the moment, the centre has 65 beneficiaries which is comprised of fifteen (15) females and fifty (50) males.

As part of its skills program the centre started a bakery project, a coffee shop and a restaurant which is run by the beneficiaries.

One of the beneficiaries, 40-year-old Nolan Williams from Nigel who never stops singing praises to the centre says his life has changed tremendously. He said the centre has given him a second chance after he lost his job in 2020. Williams is the current supervisor at the bakery project.

“We do orders for local community, and we also supply to other NPO’s, and local small businesses and we are hoping to grow”, said Williams.

He said the bakery project has employed four people who are also beneficiaries of the centre.

Williams said before he came to the centre he struggled with drugs and alcohol abuse, and he was taken through a detoxification process.

According to LCC General Manager, Jaco Kripzinger, their work is to feed, house, uplift and train the destitute, vulnerable, and broken in the community. Kripzinger said when the Department started funding them, they were already making a meaningful impact in terms of providing shelters for the homeless and he believes that with the constant support from government and local community they can make a huge difference in terms of assisting homeless people and will expand their services to the entire Sedibeng area.

“We don’t discriminate, we don’t choose gender, we accommodate everyone as long as they meet the criteria, and we are happy that most of the people we accommodate eventually end up finding their feet again and able to stand on their own, some we reunify them with their families”, Kripzinger added.
He stressed that the centre works closely with other organisations because they realised that most of the people who live in the street are found to be abusing substances and as the centre, they are able to refer them for detoxification before enrolling them into their skills programs.