Pendengar, sebuah organisasi nirlaba di
Sydney, ReLove, memberikan bantuan
kemanusiaan yang sangat personal dan
memberdayakan kepada anggota masyarakat
yang kurang beruntung akibat masalah
sosial yang ekstrem.
SBS Indonesian berkesempatan berbincang
dengan salah satu pendiri dan pengelola
ReLove, Ben Stammer, mengenai misi, model
operasi, dan ambisi organisasi ini.
And thanks for the opportunity to, to talk
about ReLove. So I'm Ben Stammer. I'm one
of the co-founders of ReLove Charity in
Greater Sydney. Uh, we are
big free store for people who are coming
out of crisis situations, so homelessness
or domestic violence, or potentially
coming out of incarceration,
where people come in with their caseworker
to shop for everything they need to get
restarted, uh, so in their home. So it's a
and homewares to get, uh, to furnish a new
safe home. And
where we have people coming in to shop for
everything they need, and then we move
them in the very next day to set up their,
their full home.
ReLove adalah sebuah badan nirlaba yang
dikelola oleh Ben Stammer dan kawan-kawan,
mendapatkan sebagian besar barang
berkualitas tinggi melalui sumbangan, dan
yang lebih mengesankan lagi adalah mendaur
ulang perabot rumah tangga yang sudah
-tidak diinginkan oleh masyarakat.
-Yes, ReLove is a charity, a registered
charity, and we are, you know, sort of
able to receive
... cash, cash donations from the general
public, and the, and the donor can get a
because we're a charity, we're, we're able
to, um, you know, to operate in a pretty
lean way. So we have some warehouse and
delivery staff, but we've really got a
very small team to ensure that all the
dollars that, that, that we're raising as
part of the ReLove fundraising goes to
support the people that we're supporting.
ReLove beroperasi dari gudang seluas
seribu lima ratus meter persegi di sebuah
suburb di Sydney, yaitu Alexandria, yang
juga dipakai sebagai toko bebas untuk para
-klien.
-That's right, Ricky. We've got a warehouse
in Alexandria, in Sydney. Uh, it's a
fifteen hundred square meter warehouse, so
it's a pretty big warehouse,
and part of our warehouse is styled like a
free store. So-
-Mhm
-... it looks a little bit like an IKEA or,
or a [laughing] furniture store, where
people walk through the various sections,
-and they select everything they need.
-Pada mulanya, proyek ReLove ini
mendapatkan furniture atau perabot rumah
tangga dari upaya untuk menyelamatkan
furniture berkualitas tinggi yang terbuang
sia-sia di Sydney melalui inisiatif
pembersihan lingkungan lokal. Kemudian,
dengan berkolaborasi bersama sektor
kooperat, perhotelan, dan pemasok
furniture, ReLove membangun jalur donasi
yang berkelanjutan. Ketika kantor-kantor
direnovasi atau hotel mengganti atau
merenovasi perabot furniture yang masih
kondisi prima, dialihkan ke ReLove
daripada berakhir di tempat pembuangan
sampah. Selain itu, perusahaan furniture
juga menyumbangkan stok akhir musim atau
barang-barang yang kemasannya rusak yang
tidak dapat dijual lagi. Melalui sumber
donasi yang beragam ini, ReLove
menyediakan perabot rumah tangga lengkap
bagi klien yang membutuhkan.
So my co-founder, Ren, uh, and I, we were
actually running a running group. We were,
we were involved in a running group,
finding some, some practical ways to learn
about some of the support required in our
community. And we've, you know, for
example, would put the call out to our
running group
community to, to raise running shoes, you
know, great quality running shoes. The
average person experiencing homelessness
walks about twenty-eight kilometers a week
and needs really good quality shoes. Then
we did a project around furniture, so it
was the end of COVID time. We saw just how
much great quality furniture was being
-thrown out, you know-
-Mhm
... as part of council cleanups, and we
thought, "Let's, let's do a project around
furniture. We're gonna try to rehome five
families coming out of a women's refuge."
And we ended up getting so much great
quality furniture donated that, that we,
we started ReLove, and we ended up just,
just furnishing thirty-five homes in those
-first few months.
-Besides collecting all those thrown away
furnitures, where else did you get your
material from?
Yeah, really good question. So we get a
lot of furniture donated and delivered to
-us from companies.
-Mhm.
So, you know, from offices, for example.
Uh, office furniture is typically
and, you know, ninety-five percent of
office furniture ends up in landfill.
-Mhm.
-Um, Sydney's landfill will be full by
twenty thirty, so this isn't, you know,
next generation's problem. This is our...
-um, this is our issue to focus on.
-Mhm.
We get lots and lots of great quality
items from hotels. So when, when hotels
refurbish their rooms, we often get a, you
know, a full hotel room donated to
ReLove. And if you think about a hotel
room, it's effectively a house in a room.
-Mhm.
-Um, we also get furniture donated from
furniture companies or suppliers. So
maybe the box is a bit damaged, and they
can't sell it, or perhaps, you know, it
might be end-of-season stock that, that,
that they're left over with. So instead
of, um, sending it to landfill, the
companies can, can send it to ReLove, and
-then we, we provide it to our clients.
-ReLove bekerja sama dengan beberapa
yayasan lain dan organisasi amal mitra
untuk mendanai dan melaksanakan pekerjaan
-mereka.
-... sampai saat ini ada lebih dari delapan
puluh badan amal mitra di seluruh Sydney
yang merujuk klien mereka ke ReLove.
So we're, we work with a range of
partners. So there are foundations that,
that support ReLove with, with, with our
funding. So people like the Judith Nelson
Foundation, the Snow Foundation, uh,
Community Capital are, are, you know, um,
significant supporters of ReLove, and we
really appreciate that, that support to
We work with now over eighty-five
partner charities across Sydney who refer
their clients to ReLove. So these are
specialist charities in domestic violence
or supporting people experiencing
-supporting youth at risk, supporting
people who have had contact with the
criminal justice system. So it's all the
specialist agencies who, who refer their
So the way that we do this, Ricky, is, is
we very much work in partnership with a
whole bunch of people to, to get this, uh,
this work done.
If someone needs your assistance, how can
they go about seeking your support?
Yeah, so they would need to be referred by
one of the specialist agency or charities
that are listed on our website. So it's
relove.org.au.
-Mm-hmm.
-And that, that lists the, the partner
charity or referral partners that, that we
work with. We're not set up to deal with
people that just might, might come in, you
know, directly into ReLove because that,
that caseworker and intensive charity
support is really important part of our
-support network.
-It seems that you have a large operation
here. Uh, what is the approximate number
of volunteers currently working for your
-organisation?
-So on a typical day, Ricky, we have ten to
thirty volunteers working with, with
ReLove, and the volunteers are helping us
style the ReLove Free Store. They're
walking alongside clients doing the, the
shopping, uh, the free shopping
experience, and they're also going out
with our trained delivery staff to help
people set up their homes. So it's a
really direct and impactful volunteering
experience here at ReLove.
Approximately how many homes have you
helped in the last twelve months?
Yeah, so in the last twelve months, we've
furnished over eight hundred and eighty
So that, that, that equates to about two
thousand three hundred people that, that
we're supporting. So lots of the homes
have, you know, have a number of children,
uh, there. Uh, around seventy-three
percent of our clients are women-
-Mm.
--women impacted by domestic violence
and/or homelessness. Uh, and around forty
percent of our clients are First Nations
people, so, uh, so Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander people-
-Mm
-... who are at risk or experiencing
-homelessness.
-Do you get any help from the government to
-do this charity work?
-It's been pretty limited to date. We have
just received a little bit of help from
Homes New South Wales, so that's amazing
support to help us scale, uh, the level
of, of support within, within Greater
Um, but, but we're really looking for,
for, you know, for government and, and for
other partners to, to come on this
journey with us to, to help scale the
-support.
-Do you have any message for the public in
regard to the future of your operation
here?
Yeah, look, I mean, we, we're ambitious.
It's a very, very scalable model. We're
looking to scale this model both to, to
regional New South Wales and, uh, to other
capital cities around Australia. Um, you
know, what, what we'd ask is people engage
with us, people engage with, with ReLove
in terms of, um, you know... So come in
and, so come in and volunteer. Come in
and, you know, um, you know, show some
support. We're always looking for
donations of things like kettles and
toasters and kitchen starter sets, towels,
blankets, all of those things are always
needed. So we'd really encourage anyone in
the Sydney area, um, who wants to get
involved, maybe to volunteer or, uh,
potentially to donate some much needed
-items.
-Okay. How-- If I want to be a volunteer,
-how am I going about to contact you?
-Yeah, probably the best way, Ricky, is to
go onto our website, so www.relove, all
one word,
-R-E-L-O-V-E, .org.au.
-That's Ben Stammer
from ReLove. Thank you very much for the
time.
