An app that helps women find domestic-cleaning jobs has been started by a Muizenberg NGO.
The Cleaning Fix works with women who want to work but have small children that need looking after, according to Joshua Cox, CEO of Fix Forward Trust, which supports grassroots entrepreneurs, contractors, and domestic workers.
The app connects these women to jobs. All cleaners are vetted and have completed a “professionalism and cleaning techniques” workshop.
The cleaners are paid R350 for a full day, R250 for half a day and there is an option to pay an extra R10 towards their transport.
“To them, it’s food on the table, taxi fare, childcare or school fees for their children, medicine for ailing loved ones perhaps,” said Mr Cox.
The Cleaning Fix came out of the foundation’s Mothers in Need campaign, which he started during Covid-19 after meeting a woman who was seven months pregnant who could not feed herself. She had no access to food parcels because of being an undocumented asylum seeker.
Mr Cox founded Fix Forward and, working with the Zoe Project, an NPO that provides maternal health-care programmes, raised more than R750 000 to support 300 families with grocery vouchers for half a year.
According to Mr Cox, The Cleaning Fix differs from a similar service in that it doesn’t charge the cleaners any fees and 100% of the payment goes to the cleaner.
Blessing Moyo lives with her partner and four-year-old child in Wynberg. She worked full-time as a cleaner until Covid-19 and recently joined The Cleaning Fix. She now works almost every day and has also learnt how to budget her money and how to clean efficiently.
Joyce Mubayiwa, of Capricorn Park, joined The Cleaning Fix in April 2021 and part of her fee goes towards payment for care of her four-year-old. She heard about The Cleaning Fix through a friend who had seen it on social media. She said she had consistently had bookings since she joined. “And it’s getting better as more people join the platform.”
Monique Wilds is using The Cleaning Fix three times a week for the company she works for in Westlake. Prior to this, they used another company but have decided to extend the contract with The Cleaning Fix.
“The lady we have is a super star, and we rarely have to tell her what to do. She takes the initiative. She’s thorough and super-fast,” said Ms Wilds. “You can book quality service online no hassles no fuss and we like the fact that all proceeds goes to the lady, which is amazing for her.”
Mr Cox said: “My goal is to make a positive impact on the world. This is a string in the bow to my mission. I am so inspired by the drive, resilience and persistence that these heroes of this story have shown, and a hunger to provide a better life for their children.”