KNYNSA NEWS - Knysna's Ons Winkel in the Main Road is a place to go to find treasures, but it is also the place to donate clothes, books, ornaments, furniture, you pretty much name it.
Cindie van der Walt is the person behind Ons Winkel. Thanks to her, there is now a shop on the Garden Route where you can find a designer dress for a wedding, an evening event or matric dance dress for a fraction of the price these dresses would ordinarily cost.
And while you are browsing here you might even find a pair of false teeth - if you are lucky it might just be the perfect fit!
Two years ago Van der Walt came to Knysna to open this shop and she brought with her a collection of Anél Botha Couture from Gauteng, who is famous for dressing celebrities and Miss South Africa contestants, but you will also find the likes of fashion A-listers Jose de Canha Couture (Potchefstroom) and Jacqueline's Bridal Couture in Pretoria here.
The shop is bursting with these couture dresses and the amazing thing is that this is your chance to hire an evening dress, a coctail dress or just something for a special occasion for a nominal fee.
Van der Walt moved from Nelspruit to the Garden Route in 2022, bringing with her a branch of Ons Winkel - part of Solidariteit Helpende Hand organisation. It is the first one of its kind here, although there are 122 shops around the rest of the country.
Her husband passed away from Covid in 2021 and she decided to move far away from Nelspruit, far away from the painful memories.
She decided to take a 'huge leap of faith' and to move here with her children; within weeks of her decision to move to the Garden Route she found an apartment and a perfect venue for Knysna's Ons Winkel in the Main Road.
The shop location was perfect, but she was faced with the challenge of getting stock for the enormous 125 square metres shop, which was almost empty in January 2021.
Almost a year later, this space is now filled with donations of all-sorts from clothing bargains to books and more.
There really are all sorts of things in this shop. Cindie says that donations of false teeth are welcome as there is a real need for them. You'll find brand-new black school shoes at a fraction of the market price - imagine how that would help a family who are battling with finances.
There are ornaments, paintings, shoes, sport gear, jewellery, baby clothes and a pram, and many more goodies to keep anyone browsing. There are even some 'reborn dolls' on top of a cabinet and they honestly resemble a kind of nursery of babies.
Donate and shop for treasures at Ons Winkel in Main Road.
Cindie recently gave away one of these precious dolls to a woman who looks after elderly people and wanted one for an Alzheimer patient, but she could not afford it. At first this gift elicted smiles from those in the shop, but it ended in a tearful, emotional moment.
In the first year that Cindie was in her Knysna shop, 10 Grade 1 students were kitted out with stationery packs containing every single thing they would need for school for the year.
A dozen young Garden Route women who couldn't afford matric dresses in 2022 were stylishly dressed by Ons Winkel, not only in beautiful dresses, but couture labels.
Eight years ago Cindie pioneered the concept of acquiring designer dresses for Helpende Hand shops and the project became the 'FroueVonds* Droomrokke-projek', an inisiative in co-operation with Demi Lee Moore. Since then, she says she has been 'blessed in abundance,' by designers and individuals who donated unselfishly to the Solidariteit Helpende Hand cause. "I was once given so many dresses that I needed to flatten the back of my little car's boot to fit all the dresses into my car," says Cindie.
Ons Winkel in Knysna needs and hugely appreciates donations, says Cindie.
They also need shoppers. It's a win-win situation with the greater good being ploughed right back into the poorest of the community.
All funds raised here go to the Solidariteit Helpende Hand initiatives to help people with their day-to-day needs, as Cindie says, "those who aren't helped by the government." This includes a study trust which helps those who can't afford schooling and tertiary education, feeding schemes and various other social upliftment projects.
CLICK HERE to see more and exactly where your donations and purchases go. Contact Cindie on 083 529 9167 and pop into the shop right on Main Road, near KFC. There is parking to the left of the shop off Main Road.
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