Power of One Community: How a Family Shelter is Changing Lives!
Western Cape, South Africa (10 May 2025) – Sometimes a story wraps itself around your heart and won’t let go. This is one of those stories.
It starts in a family shelter in Somerset West, an incredible shelter in the Western Cape that supports single parents and couples with children. But this isn’t just a story about shelter… it’s a story about resilience, about hope stitched together by community and about a young man named Ethan who’s preparing to represent South Africa on a global stage.
Ethan and his mom, Michelle, have been living at the Somerset West Night Shelter’s Family Shelter for a while. Life hasn’t been easy. Michelle has been navigating ongoing health challenges, which have made full-time work near impossible. She’s still waiting for approval on a disability grant but that hasn’t stopped her from giving her all. She helps wherever she can in the shelter, especially in the kitchen, showing up for her community with a quiet strength that often goes unseen.
Her son, Ethan, is the kind of young person who makes you believe in a brighter future. With the support of the shelter and the incredible team at MPower Learning Centre, he’s currently completing his GED, a huge step toward self-sufficiency and building a life beyond survival.
Marlene, who leads the MPower team, first met Ethan two years ago and instantly felt a deep connection. She’s never charged a cent for his private education. Let that sink in. Not a cent. Because sometimes love looks like a textbook and a maths lesson and showing up, week after week, to remind a young person that they matter.
But Ethan’s story doesn’t stop at the classroom door. He’s also part of a group called Yes Ya Yebo through the Imibala Trust Foundation, an initiative that celebrates South African culture through storytelling, music, and dance. And now Ethan is preparing to board a plane to the United Kingdom and Scotland to represent South Africa – to sing, to dance and to tell stories that reflect where he comes from. It’s a dream so big and so beautiful that it makes you pause.
“This journey means a lot to me,” Ethan wrote. “And I look forward to every moment.”
He’s already raised funds to cover his passport and visa and the community is rallying to help him with a few essentials, clothes (he’s growing like a Boeing!) and small travel needs. The shelter is suggesting mall vouchers or direct donations to help make this adventure possible.
Since 1988, the Somerset West Night Shelter has been offering far more than a warm bed. They’ve created space for healing, for growth, for new beginnings. Their work now includes skills training, transport, education, health support, baby care and coaching, all tailored to help individuals find a fresh start and a sustainable future.
As they put it: “We are like an extended family for the time that they need it most.”
And that’s exactly what Ethan and Michelle have found, a family that believes in them. A community that champions second chances. And a team that is offering support and building futures.
Ethan’s journey is only just beginning, but it already speaks volumes: that even through hardship, with the right people in your corner, anything is possible.
If you’d like to help Ethan take this next step, reach out to the Somerset West Night Shelter. Every voucher, every small donation and every bit of encouragement adds up to something powerful.
