Displaced Persons Sub-Unit Administration Assistant Kagiso Michael Maoka devotes his time to help homeless people and substance users get skills to gain employment in the future.
Maoka first started as a volunteer at Windsor West homeless shelter near Cresta and used to help around the facility before he was appointed as an Administration Assistant at 03 Kotze Street Overnight Shelter.
“I started at Windsor as a volunteer for six months. I had no job, I used to go to the facility only to have a meal and a shower then I saw some posts and later in the year I got the job,” says Kagiso.
The purpose of the facility is to provide Joburgers from the streets with support service programmes such as family reunification services, drug rehabilitation, and to create independence within the beneficiaries by providing them with skills development such as computer skills and security skills.
Initially, the facility was mainly focused on helping South African displaced citizens, but due to an increase in the number of people from the neighbouring countries in the streets, the shelter accommodates individuals who have an identification document to avoid robbery, violence and rape in the streets.
People can walk in and others are recruited from the assessment centre, the Governor’s House, where homeless people go to have their first meal and shower of the day.
“JMPD and City Parks and Zoo employees also play a vital role in identifying those who are sleeping in the streets or parks and refer them to the shelter,” Maoka says.
The Displaced Persons Sub-Unit provides three meals a day, breakfast, lunch and supper. Each floor has showers and toilets. Women don’t share floors with men, they each has their own floor. Each floor consists of 12 rooms and 12 beds a room. There is a spacious sitting room that is also used for discussion sessions and a Kitchen.
The shelter has over 300 homeless people from different homelands and asks the community members to donate items of comfort, including blankets and pillows, as well as hundreds of items of non-perishable foods.
“Life is a matter of privilege because while some live a life of luxury, some just fail to make ends meet,” says the Head of the Displaced Persons Sub-Unit in the Health and Social Development portfolio, Kebonye Senna.
Though Maoka is grateful to have as job, he says working with people can be hard sometimes. “With the shortage in the nursing, psychological and security sector, it creates challenges such as theft within the facility as some situations don’t only need social workers but the staff who deals with vulnerable people,” Maoka says.
Written by Gontse ‘GeE’ Hlophe
28/10/2021