Engineer bags old billboards for homeless

Oliver Brain is offering South Africans a way to help the homeless with his not-for-profit invention, the Street Sleeper.

The Cape Town engineer produces sleeping bags made from recycled plastic advertising billboards that are durable and water- and wind-proof.

The bag can also be used to store and carry possessions.

And Brain has started a social media campaign inviting people to sponsor the sleeping bags for R170 each.

He distribute s the bags through other non-profit organisations and employs four people to make them .

"At the base level, it is about shelter. But in the long term, I want to facilitate a dialogue around homelessness. The end goal is to teach people to value the homeless, who share a space with us," he said.

Brain said homelessness was a problem in every major city, in every country, and South Africa was no different.

"In Cape Town there are around 2,000 beds in various shelters but at any given moment there are between 4,000 and 6,000 homeless people in the streets every day," he said.

• READ MORE: Vigilante violence leaves Malawian family homeless in RosettenvilleElube Mwalwen‚ who immigrated to South Africa from Malawi‚ was making her way home from work when she noticed a commotion outside her home on Lawn street in Rosettenville.