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We are a socially-conscious collective of changemakers, critical thinkers and innovators. Our work is fueled by research, and we are committed to action through innovative and sustainable solutions, so that we can shift away from a reliance on donations. Our motto is “This is not charity. This is change”.
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Our strategic objective is to use our feeding to start the dialogue about exploiting education and skills training to change the circumstances of those living in poverty.
Our model is holistic in the true sense, and we consider all aspects of empowerment, including providing psychosocial support alongside training to heal trauma and ensure our impacts are long lasting.
We believe in the principle of circularity, and we look for opportunities at every step of our work, to educate, heal, mentor, and help grow as a means to resolving social challenges. We use science and business strategies as a foundation for innovation.
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“One seed of kindness creates many, and many create change”.
This is the simple principle which The Dandelion Philosophy is built on.
All our work is designed to create long-lasting impact and ensure a shift away from dependency on charity to autonomy and independence.
We believe in holistic transformation and our model is engineered to heal the whole person and circumstance rather than select problems or limitations.
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It starts with a plate of vegetarian food from a containerised kitchen or “Empower Pod”. Feeding a hungry person allows the mind to shift from survival to calm. We can then begin the dialogue about new prospects, and we work with our partner organisations to train our people in their areas of interest. Our food is always vegetarian to ensure that no one is excluded from our feeding. This also ensures we can do more, as meals containing meat, fish, chicken and egg costs substantial more than a vegetarian meal.
After training, the people we feed can become paid feeders and bakers in their own communities, container repairers, vertical farmers, health and safety inspectors, or security staff.
Our bakery workers produce fortified bread which will be sold in retail stores using a buy-one-give-one model. Every loaf of bread we will sell will also be given to a family in need. The fortified nature of our bread combined with our buy-one-give-one model means we are not only able to pay our bakery workers, but that we are also addressing malnutrition.
We use a proven vertical garden model to grow vegetables which are used to supply our “Empower Pods” and to help communities become self-sufficient.
Our products, services, and businesses mean that there are a multitude of career options with The Dandelion Philosophy. And every profitable business gives 20% of its profits back to The Dandelion Philosophy, so we can continue our work.
We also work with graduates, specifically in Psychology and Social Work, to couple all the people we empower through psychosocial support with a counsellor or therapist. We believe that healing trauma makes us more likely to be successful in the long run. graduates gain valuable work experience, which better positions them to find paying jobs. And throughout the process, we evaluate and gather data which helps us continually improve our model.
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We are a social enterprise. Unlike the traditional charity, our work addresses the immediate problem of hunger, while also allowing us to empower the people we feed out of poverty and unemployment in creative ways. Our innovations feed, they create jobs, and they heal trauma. They help address social challenges, and, over time, our innovations will fund our work so that we will not be reliant on donations.
Most importantly, our globally scalable plug and play model allows us to keep giving back into our charitable work, so we can help more people around the world out of hunger, poverty, and unemployment.
Our intention is to empower the people we feed through psychosocial support and to create new sustainable opportunities to change circumstances, rather than to feed without end.
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Our work today is spread across the Gauteng area of South Africa, including Johannesburg.
Our current fundraising program is intended to help us spread our work and model to some of the most impoverished communities in the Eastern Cape of South Africa over the next 2 years
And because our plug and play model is robust and scalable, we envision expansion into the rest of Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America thereafter.
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We are the only organisation globally that uses innovation to create solutions to global challenges which, in turn, create employment and empowerment for the very people we feed.
We are also the first organisation in the world to create its own NFT Art to fund its philanthropic work.
Our model is unique in that we provide access to psychosocial support for every single person we help, to ensure they are never held back by the traumas of the past again.
Giving to our work addresses immediate basic needs but is also an investment into a holistic and sustainable approach to building bright futures for the people and communities we serve.
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It is our responsibility and commitment to make sure that your donations go further and that your giving is part of a solution, rather than feeding a problem which has no end. Every dollar we receive is distributed as follows:-
◘ 25% = Pods and Bakeries (basic needs met, 1000 plates/day/pod, opportunities/jobs,
◘ 15% = Education (ECD Centre Program funding doubled due to access to government fund, researcher after researcher has proven the importance of early childhood education and the long term positive impacts on lives)
◘ 15% = AFriculture (agricultural research, equipment including tractors, farmland, payment to new farmers, land surveyance, etc).
◘ 15% = Innovation & Growth (Virtual advocacy, including building our own green blockchain, research and digital empowerment projects)
◘ 10% = Psychosocial Support Program (graduate training, travel, salaries, resources)
◘ 5% = Community Investment Fund (used to support the work of individuals within the communities we work with, and to support other organisations aligned with The Dandelion Philosophy who do not have the means to raise their own funding).
◘ 15% = Operations & Administration (legal and administrative costs, professional development, stipends, salaries, and operating costs).
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Our logo is something we are very proud of. It highlights the focusses of our global community and our belief that the solutions we create must be circular and holistic to be truly effective and ensure they keep giving.
Each ring of colour on our logo has a meaning - from the centre circle, which represents humanity, to the sixteen seeds surrounding our emblem which represent the ancestors and reminds us of their sacrifices.
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Our interventions and the transformation we lead are driven by a deep connectedness to the communities we serve.
We believe that by engaging local communities as stakeholders and partners in change, we can empower them to help drive local strategy and ensure that our focuses remain relevant to each community we work with.
Our goal is to understand first and then to intervene in the right ways by building trust and inspiring sustainable and focussed action.
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Our strategy ensures thorough research and testing, as well as ongoing pre- and post-implementation review and clear targeted outcomes.
Every aspect of our model is designed to be practical, scalable, and to fully utilise local resources.
By working closely with the community, we train and develop the practical skills and the leadership necessary to sustain our collective impact in the long term without returning to a cycle of dependency.
We embed psychosocial support into every aspect of our work to ensure that we are addressing the challenges, the symptoms, and the root causes. This ensures that the new opportunities we create contribute to healing long-term exposure to trauma, poverty and unemployment.
Through our partnerships and ongoing review and assessment, we combine the power of people and data, resulting in a readiness to adapt to a changing world, and the needs of the community.
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Our team comprises over 400 volunteers from 49 countries around the world.
We are governed by an experienced and diverse Board of Directors, and guided by our Strategic Advisory Board.
To ensure our work is always representative of the communities we work in, we ensure that local community leaders and the youth are instrumental in the design and implementation of our interventions.
We also have a hands-on Leadership Team who oversee day-to-day operations.
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Our focus for the 12 months beginning in Q4 of 2022 is rapid intervention in the Eastern Cape region of South Africa which has some of the highest levels of poverty, hunger, and unemployment in the country.
Our interventions, in partnership with local communities, will take the form of:-
feeding through our pods and bakeries to address hunger and malnourishment affecting up to 10,000 people in one community alone
local community development and the implementation of practical psychosocial support interventions
sustainable agriculture including the use of vertical farming guided by partner organisations
utilising entrepreneurship as a catalyst for skills development, healing, and empowerment for those most affected by poverty and unemployment.
