The Big Issue

High quality, varied and entertaining content for readers across age, culture, religion, gender and other demographics. Stories include reporting on local and international happenings with a ‘bigger issue’ about an individual, and unusual news or events that impact us all. The Big Issue shares in-depth interviews with local and international celebrities, artists, change-makers and thought leaders. It also focuses on local people or organisations committed to making positive changes in society – intent on finding innovative ways to effect change.

The Big Issue

Giving via CSI

BIG ISSUE BOARD OF DIRECTORS SAY … • Our Board of Directors Desiree Johnson and Marlinee Chetty present their views on CSI, and MD Derek Carelse adds an interesting perspective.

STOP & BUY • Our vendors sell The Big Issue to generate a living. They operate as self-made entrepreneurs and their sole earnings are profit made from each magazine they sell. We appeal to you donate to our vendor's wish lists below, enabling them to further their opportunities. If you can make a dream come true, please reach out to us. The Big Issue is a social enterprise, creating opportunities to end poverty and exclusion.

VENDOR FOOD EDUCATION • Kelly Gemmell, Researcher at The Institute for Life Course Health Research, volunteered recently to assist our Big Issue vendors (we are grateful), with a talk about food, nutrition and health. Big Issue Social Worker Melody Gombakoma reports.

Write from Durban • Durban-born Bianca Beck lost her office job when the Covid-19 pandemic struck but managed to find work elsewhere and also took the opportunity to write a book she'd started years earlier. Here, she chats to former employer, and friend, Shirley Williams who helped Bianca with publishing costs for Crossroads.

Wanting the impossible • Author Catherine Newman chats about writing fiction versus writing memoirs, taking inspiration from real life, and her favourite scene from her first novel for adults, We All Want Impossible Things.

Miracles and love • Small Miracles will take you on a joyful and uplifting journey as three nuns learn more about life, love, and friendship than they could ever have imagined - and it all began with the seed of an idea planted in the mind of author Anne Booth.

COMPANIES DOING GOOD • Tiger Brands is putting their CSI budget to good use. Teaming up with Food & Trees for Africa's Edu Plant, the collaborative partnership has created fully-fledged, flourishing permaculture school food gardens in 300 schools nationwide.

ABOUT FOOD & TREES FOR AFRICA (FTFA)

Real Johannesburg • Wake Up, This is Joburg, a gritty new book about the city, is a collaboration between photographer Mark Lewis and urban planner and writer Tanya Zack. Stricking images and beautiful texts follow 10 stories the team discovered in urban Johannesburg. Each chapter captures many overlapping stories that come together around a character, a place or an activity. The book is an ethnographic portrait of vibrant and intriguing Johannesburg.

New sensory library for kids • Hey there bookworms, have you heard? Toys R Us has partnered with The LEARN Project to launch a new sensory library in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It's called the Bright Future Sensory Library and it's officially open to the community of Newlands East.

Little issue

WELCOME TO OUR CSI EDITION • Ian Kilbride, Guest Editor for The Big Issue and Chairman of Spirit Invest and Spirit Foundation, and Honorary Professor at Stellenbosch Business School writes…

IMPROVING A DIRE STATE • Enabling the disabled in the economy

TIPS FOR YOU AND YOUR ORGANISATION

WHAT'S WRONG WITH OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM? • It is not headline news that the disadvantages and income discrepancies of our country flow into...