Helping homeless clients find employment through collaboration
Many say, “just find a job” when coming across someone begging on the street. The stained face and dirty clothes are all they see; they look past the desperation and sadness. “Just get a job!” How? How does a homeless person apply for employment opportunities without access to ablution facilities or a safe, clean place […]
Lighting the Way Home
In desperate need for an income to provide for her 2-year-old son, Tanya left her home in Zimbabwe to find work in Cape Town. She walked by faith, not knowing that she would start losing her sight soon after arriving in Cape Town. Finding herself destitute, on the streets – and after 3 eye surgeries, […]
Friendship – the Essence of Life
I once read a sticker on a car, “when days are dark, friends are few”. It stuck a cord with me, true friendship is not for the faint hearted, because some of us go through some wars where the battle scars never heal. This seemed relevant to most of the clients we work with at […]
Tearing Up the Streets of Hope AND Desolation
It has been a year since South Africa went into lockdown. A year that gave birth to both hope and desolation for many on the streets, that double-edge sword of the lives that we interact with daily. We celebrated the many lives of those fighting to survive on the streets, and the realisation of The […]
Exit Plans – The Stumbling Block for GBV on the Streets
A woman who has been brutally attacked seeks assistance for safety. Severely traumatised, she is told she CANNOT access support services due to NOT meeting the GBV (Gender-Based-Violence) safety placement requirements of having an exit plan (a home to go to) after her time in a safe house. What is the exit plan when you […]
Admittance, the First Step to Sobriety
Addiction, an invisible noose that some of our clients live with every day. Slacking the noose is no easy feat when your drug of choice, in a sense, enables surviving the harsh and unsafe conditions of street life. If you think adequate shelter is a challenge for a homeless person, then image what it must […]
Kicking addiction to the kerb
“Determination on the streets is quite important since being clean on the streets is one of the most difficult things to do,” says our fieldworker, Tasneem Hoosain-Fielies, with great pride, as she reflects on *Steve’s journey to sobriety at the age of 26. His life, like many of our clients’, has not been easy. Drugs […]
Moving forward and upward
Imagine receiving a call from someone to tell you how amazingly well your client is doing after leaving the streets and finding employment in another province? This is what happened to our fieldworker, Tasneem Hoosain-Fielies, who worked tirelessly with *Thokozani while he was homeless in Cape Town. *Thokozani is one of the few clients of […]
Homeless not hopeless
Imagine losing the keys to your Mercedes Benz, and having them returned to you by two homeless men in the CBD! Meet our clients Jack* and John*. Unable to afford rent, they became homeless and sought refuge in the mountains above Cape Town. The car owner was so grateful to them that he gave them […]
64 – We ADVOCATE for THIS Number
“Through all the confusion glimmers hope as little bits of truths are shared as he slips in, and out, of reality, or rather, a world that I can relate to. I find it easy to speak to him, and he is willing to accept my help.” The words of our fieldworker reflecting on one of […]