Brush with Kindness Program

Case study: Restoring order in the jungle

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A pensioner whose ‘out of control’ garden had overwhelmed him for years was very pleased to see a Brush with Kindness team arrive for what turned out to be one of their biggest challenges yet. The team, a ten-strong group of volunteers, went to work on the Elizabeth property that had been neglected for about a decade. The team filled two nine cubic feet skips with vegetation and rubbish.

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Habitat for Humanity South Australia Volunteer Coordinator, Mark Medhurst, said the only way to describe the scene that greeted the volunteers was “a jungle.” After a hard day’s work, an extremely grateful pensioner regained his backyard.

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“To see his jungle all cleaned up made a huge difference for the gentleman concerned because he got a clean canvass that he could then work on himself,” Mark said.

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Habitat’s Brush with Kindness program engages volunteers, both private individuals and corporate groups, to undertake jobs ranging from small repairs to painting, landscaping and replanting gardens. Mark says the type of work generally requires labour rather than qualifications “because it means anybody can make an impact and, also, because we don’t want to take work away from qualified trades people”.

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Beneficiaries include organisations like women’s shelters which don’t have the funds to invest in the aesthetics of a facility, with Mark describing one Brush with Kindness project where the painting of outside furniture and equipment in very bright colours lifted the spirits of all concerned.