HOMELESS, BUT PEOPLE - PROFILES: Time
July 14, 2011
Sophia Ayissi accompanied DFL scholar Lesley Nkosi to meet homeless people at the bottom of the Nelson Mandela Bridge, where she met and got to know Time:
There are stories of success. Time, a Zimbabwean that emigrated to South Africa in 1991 to escape from the bad economic and political situation in his country, tells such a story.
Time used to be homeless, living in the streets in and around Braamfontein. Looking back at this time, he remembers his desperate situation: “You can lose your life any minute, living in the streets. You always walk alone. Only my faith gave me the strength to go through this.”
Time focused on improving his situation. He started to learn local languages, kept on looking for small jobs, got in touch with security guards in his surroundings. After a while he got offered a security job himself.
With his monthly income he now tries to support not only his family by paying for food and his sister’s school fees back home in Zimbabwe. He also tries to get his former companions some jobs, employing them whenever his company is in need of new employees. “If I forget about my friends, no one’s gonna help them.”
But still he criticizes the attitude of many homeless people he met: “Many of them are skilled enough to get a job, but they’re getting distracted, wasting their money on alcohol and drugs.”
DFL Scholar Lesley Nkosi is taking action for the Nelson Mandela Day by collecting blankets and clothes for the homeless in Braamfontein and Jozi:
“It is cold these days. Really cold.
It’s really hard to sleep at night knowing that there are those women and children sleeping in the cold every
night.”
PEP stores sells blankets at R36 a piece. Surely you can donate that? Or a warm jacket…
Do you want to donate blankets?
Please bring them to the DFL Projects Office, University Corner, Floor 17, Wits University.
Do you want to participate in handing out warm soup, blankets and clothes?
Please meet this Saturday (09.7.) at 7:45am at the bottom of Nelson Mandela Bridge (near to the AUDI centre on Juta Street).
Or on Sunday (10.07) at 2:00pm at Central Methodist Church at the corner of Small Street and Pritchet Stree
Do you want to participate in the Nelson Mandela Day?
We’re looking for engaged artists, that are willing to perform at the Nelson Mandela Bridge on that day to call people’s attention on the living situation of homeless people in and around Johannesburg in a creative way.
The project aims at initializing a mentorship programme, that creates a network of well educated people that can donate their skills (e.g. medical professionals, law practitioners, etc.); a network that links them to homeless people and their needs.
If you’re interested and want to support this project, please contact Lesley Nkosi under 082 601 8497/ .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)