SMS Jeff T to 38722

So part of the Mr South Africa campaign is fundraising, and what better cause than fundraising for charity. The charity all the Mr SA semi-finalists have been assigned to raise charity for is Ons Huis(http://www.onshuistrust.co.za/), a charity organization that focuses on helping mentally and physically handicapped adults. If u have ever wondered what happens to an adult, who cant look after himself, when he becomes estranged from house or family(or maybe the person looking after him passes away), well then the people at Ons Huis would look after him. A worthy cause indeed.




Charity fundraising is a big part of the Mr SA campaign as this shows your metal as a man. Its completely unlike Miss SA( and other beauty pageants) and all these "Face of" competitions, as doing well or winning Mr SA actually takes a lot of hard work and if u win u truly did deserve it. I knew this before hand but now I really see how much hard it work it takes, but Im enjoying the challenge!


For example, the charity fundraising aspect. Now people like charity,they like those who give and are welcoming and respect those who are philanthropists...but most people do not like to give themselves(be it cash, time or effort). Which is fine as this creates the challenge and understandable, as we live in a global recession where everything is getting more expensive, but it seems like we have less and less money...so if companies or people are not willing to give I can totally see why.



The last aspect of why receiving charity is difficult, in my opinion, is ease of use. We are all in a time crunch and sometimes people want to give but the effort of giving puts them off. Lets say u dont have internet banking, so now u would have to go to the bank, wait in the line, deposit the charity amount and then fax the deposit slip off(lets hope u have a fax machine as the bank wont let u use theirs!). So i sat there thinking how could I make it extremely easy for people to give to charity, and while on facebook another one of these "Vote for Jim, sms Jim to 34521 to become the face of Pep" things popped up, and it dawned on me...



I would create a SMS line! But it would be completely geared towards charity. So I approached MTN and after a lot of work, many proposals, and help from my friend who is a top dog at SABC(Big companies like MTN only seem to put pen to paper when other big companies are involved) the SMS line had been set up. I had removed all the fuss from giving to charity, whats easier than taking out your cellphone and smsing Jeff T to 38722 and then R10 goes to charity? It cant get any easier. No mess, no fuss, no banks.

So SMS Jeff T to 38722 and donate R10 to Ons Huis.
Being Mr SA is all about making a difference.
U can also make a difference and it starts from as little as R10.
I plan to make a difference for a long time to come now :)