World Homeless Day takes place annually on 10 October. This week Weslanderspoke to Rowan Lamont, managing director of Life Charity Projects, a local non-profit company that helps homeless people in the Saldanha Bay municipal area and raises awareness about homelessness.
How many homeless people are living on the streets in the municipal area? The homeless situation seems to be sporadic. Last year we had 29 people on record. Of these only 12 are still on the streets. Some of them moved, went home or died. Others have since come along. Currently we have 45 homeless people in the area plus 20 day strollers who leave their homes in the mornings to search for food during the day. When they don’t find food they sleep on the streets.
What is the greatest need of these people? They need a proper shelter. There are three shelters for animals in the municipal area, but none for people. The homeless need a place to sleep, eat and have access to health services. We are calling on the government, public and businesses please to make contact if they know of any facilities on the West Coast we may be able to use as a shelter or even a temporary night shelter. While there is no local shelter in the area we as Life Line Projects, the Department of Social Development and other institutions can assist the homeless to attain a better quality of life or to help them get off the streets. Our partnerships are very important in what they wish to achieve as a collective, institutions such as Jakkalsfontein near Vredenburg, the former El Petra, an institution that helps people addicted to drugs. Drug addiction in many cases leads to homelessness. Per ward we take the homeless to support-group sessions at Jakkalsfontein every week.
What does the public misunderstand about homeless people, and how can we understand homelessness better?
Are they criminals? I can’t tell you they are not, but I can say that if there is any criminality involved it is mostly done out of need and not want. I know most of the homeless people by name, and I stopped one of them recently in Saldanha and asked him where he was going. He admitted he was on his way to steal something, because he was very hungry and had nothing to eat. I gave him the packet of chips and a sweet I had with me. It wasn’t a lot, but it was enough for him to turn around and change his mind about stealing. These people have been through so much, I will be able to fill many books on their traumatic and sad stories. It is my opinion that you can make better friends with the homeless on the streets of Saldanha than with members of the Cabinet. Some members of the public and even the authorities are unnecessarily mean and cruel to the homeless, and we see incidents of abuse and violence towards them quite regularly.
Give an example of where kindness changed a homeless person’s life? There was a lady who was on drugs and lived on the streets of Cape Town for 17 years. We gave her a beanie, a scarf and a cup of soup, and one of our volunteers sat down with her and asked her about her day. She was shocked. She couldn’t understand why he cared to know about her or her day. That simple loving gesture transformed her. She stopped using drugs that very day, and today she works at Life Line Projects in Blouberg and helps other homeless people get back on their feet.
What new projects to help the homeless are coming to the Saldanha Bay municipal area? We are currently looking for sponsorship for a certain type of plastic bag for recyclables. This will be different from the see-through plastic bag residents use for there recyclables at the moment. This bag will be specifically for the homeless people, and they will have permission to search these bags when you place it out with your household rubbish. The homeless can then sell the recyclables for an income or take it to a local arts and crafts workshop, where they will be taught to create their own products to sell for an income. This project has already proven very successful in Cape Town.
Tell us more about the local event that will be hosted at the Multi-purpose Centre in Saldanha on World Homeless Day? On 10 October different stakeholders will give mini-makeovers to the homeless. Although there is no hot water at the facility, the Multi-purpose Centre has showers. The homeless will get the chance to shower properly and be dressed in a new donated outfit, get a haircut or a wash and blow. Volunteers will pray with them and breakfast and lunch will be served. We are also planning to get the Department of Home Affairs to help the people apply for IDs, since many of them don’t have ID documents or ID cards. Also there will be training offered on how to write a CV to find employment. The general public or business people who are interested in getting involved, are welcome to attend the event and meet our homeless beneficiaries on the day.
For more information visit Life Line Charity Projects on Facebook or phone Rowan on 076 773 4040.
