It costs the Salvation Army Benoni about R150 000 a year to feed the homeless soup and bread.
Each year has become more challenging for the organistion to fulfil this desperate need as regular donations they relied on from big businesses have steadily dried up.
“Last year was particularly quiet in terms of donations but there’s a general sense of everyone tightening their belts,” said Major Jeffrey Stafford of the Salvation Army.
“We now mostly make do with what we get in kind and what we can scratch together.”
He added they were blessed with many donations for Mandela Day and received blankets and tinned foods from businesses and learners from St Francis. The Rotary Club of Van Ryn hosted a hamburger day for residents.
“A teacher at Willowmoore High has also recently started a bread drive for us, for which we are very grateful, and their learners held a tea for our pensioners on Mandela Day, which was very special.”
The organisation feeds up to 80 destitute people on the sidewalk outside the premises on the corner of Howard Avenue and Turvey Street every weekday from 1pm to 2pm, and on Thursday nights they drive the streets of the CBD between 9pm and 11pm feeding those sleeping rough in places like Benoni Plaza and at other spots they know are common sleeping areas.
The staples of these feeding schemes are soup and bread.
“It can be so cold at night when we’re out looking for the homeless to feed that we can’t even feel our feet, then we come across people who don’t even have a shirt on or are, literally, sleeping under a plastic bag on the grass next to the road,” said assistant centre manager Antonette Grobler.
“The soup we give them is steaming hot but they simply gulp it down, they’re that hungry and cold.”
If they have blankets to also hand out, they do so on the streets on Thursday nights, but this isn’t possible without donations.
Work
Apart from the feeding schemes, the basis of the Salvation Army is its care centre where the destitute can find temporary refuge while they get back on their feet.
Stafford explained they are required to look for work during this time and are assisted with this by the office staff, and residents are also assigned tasks around the centre, which are assigned on a roster basis.
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The Salvation Army Church, situated next to the care centre, is the foundation of their work and Christian, spiritual guidance is part of the nurturing residents receive at the centre, in addition to accommodation and meals.
“Residents attend church services, get a room to stay in and get three nourishing meals a day – on weekends we try to do something special with pudding at Sunday lunch.
“If residents find work they are allowed to stay longer to enable them to really make a new start. Unfortunately, the success rate of employment is very low.”
Stafford said the biggest obstacle is simply that there isn’t work out there.
“Some of these guys are skilled welders, electricians or boilermakers, but they just can’t find work. It really is a challenge.”
Grobler described how she has seen grown men sob and become totally broken and hopeless over their situations and particularly about not being able to find a job.
“We utilise their skills at the centre, which eases our financial burden a little and also gives them a sense of purpose and worth.”
She urged members of the public who are looking for skilled labour to contact them.
“Any job, no matter how temporary, is a bit of a safeguard and provides hope for these people, so whether it’s a painter, plumber or handyman, we may be able to help get some of our residents into employment for a short period.”
Pensioners
“We’ve built a pensioners’ block and currently have 30 retired, destitute people living here.
“The elderly living in the pensioners’ block have mostly been rejected by their families and survive off a government pension.
“A requirement of taking up occupancy is that you have to be mobile,” Grobler said.
“Should an elderly person become frail, we assist to move them into proper care as we don’t have the facilities for frail care here.”
What disturbs Grobler is that these aged citizens have no contact with their families and never receive visits or support from them, but when they die the families often ‘come out of the woodwork’ to try to get their hands on whatever they can.
“It is very sad, but it is the reality,” Grobler said.
Crèche
“We also run a crèche where we currently look after 27 children between the ages of three and six. Their parents pay R650 per month and the crèche is open from 7am to 6pm.
“The children get two meals and snacks and are looked after by a qualified Early Childhood Development teacher and a trainee who supply all the required stimulation and activities.”
Grobler explained that the idea of the crèche came about to help parents living at the Salvation Army to be able to go out and look for work, but now it mainly caters to families outside of the centre.
“Many parents leave their children at home to go out and work or look for work, even very young children, which is, obviously, not the right thing to do. We are grateful to be able to offer the crèche facility to, in a small way, avoid young children having to be left home alone,” she said.
Charity shops
A Godsend for the Salvation Army is its charity shops in Rothsay Street. It was thanks to Tommy Chalmers, of Chalmers Electrical, Stafford explained, that these came into existence as he donated the premises free of charge in the early 1990s.
“Our charity shops can bring in around R30 000 a month, which goes a long way in covering expenses at the centre.
“All donations received are first sifted through at the centre to see what can be used to address needs here and the overflow is then used to stock the charity shops.”
Donations of all sorts are welcome. To donate or to find out more, contact Grobler on Antonette_Grobler@saf.salvationarmy.org
Stafford concluded that life is becoming tougher and tougher for the ordinary man on the street.
“The Salvation Army offers refuge and many other forms of assistance, physical, mental and spiritual, but not everyone is open to this.
“There are homeless we feed every week on the street, some very old, who we’ve encouraged to come and live at the centre, but they are reluctant to because they think we lock people up here.
“That couldn’t be further from the truth. This is a place of encouragement, hope and growth.
“To continue to provide this essential service to the community, we need the public’s support.”
History
The Salvation Army has been active in Benoni since 1919, founded on a need to help the destitute and provide emergency accommodation.
The current premises were an old farmhouse, complete with stables which are still part of the property today.
Stafford explained that Lieutenant Colonel Barry Schwartz bought the property in the early 1980s and built a church and care centre on it.
Glynis Cox Millett-Clay, a local historian, shared some articles about the Salvation Army in Benoni which she has in her archives:
* One was published in the East Rand Express in 1926 and is a photograph of two women, Capt Coull and Lt McCoy, Benoni Salvation Army officers who “received their marching orders” and had not yet received notification of their next appointment.
* In 1934, the East Rand Express reported that the mayor and mayoress of Benoni (Clr and Mrs M Nestadt) entertained a large party of Salvationists and friends in the Municipal Supper Room. The mayor said he was glad to pay tribute to the Salvationists for the work they were doing, not only in Benoni but throughout the world.
* Benoni City Times and Oosrandse Nuus reported in its March 24, 1944, issue on the visit of the newly-appointed head of the Salvation Army in the Union of South Africa, Lt-Commissioner, H Geo. Bowyer. He was accompanied by his wife, Mrs Bowyer, and their visit marked the 26th anniversary of the Salvation Army in Benoni. Benonians could attend three great meetings in the Hebrew Hall (Bunyan Street) to hear the commissioner speak and be entertained by the Linden Boys’ Band.
* In the January 25, 1957, issue of Benoni City Times and Oosrandse Nuus, an article was published about the mayor and mayoress, Maj and Mrs RH Howie, hosting a party in the mayor’s parlour to say farewell to Lt and Mrs R Olckers, leaders of the Salvation Army in Benoni for the past two and a half years, and to welcome their replacements, Capt S Smal and Lt S Taylor.
* In December 2000, the City Times reported on the Salvation Army commissioner for South Africa, Israel Gaither visiting the Benoni branch of the Army.
Wishlist
These are the most pressing needs at the Salvation Army:
• Soup ingredients, mainly vegetables and soup bones
• Bread/bread rolls
• Non-perishable and perishable foods
• Soya products
• Spreads for bread
• Toiletries.
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