Church addresses unemployment in the community
BRYANSTON – St Mungo's United Church operates an employment service once a week to connect jobseekers and prospective employers.
An employment service, run at the St Mungos United Church in Bryanston, hopes to find thousands of unemployed people an opportunity to find a job.
The employment service has been running at the church for more than 25 years and seeks to connect prospective employers with job seekers. The jobseekers are primarily domestic workers and gardeners but also caregivers, drivers, and painters among others.
Heather Garrett, one of the volunteers at the employment service, said that they try to help people who have skills but don’t necessarily have a qualification. The only requirement is that job seekers need to bring an ID and a work permit if they are not from South Africa as well as one reference.
Garrett said that they don’t check the references or do checks on the job seekers but rather work to introduce them to prospective employers. A core group of volunteers dedicate their time to meeting each person and writing down their details before being cross-referenced with an employer’s needs. Garrett added that they would love to have some more volunteers to assist, particularly at the beginning of the year when they are busy.
Sadly, Barrett said that more recently there have been very few employers and only a small percentage of the jobseekers manage to find employment. “We’ve got people with a variety of skills and there really are some amazing people,” said Garrett.
Erica Smith, another one of the volunteers, helps the jobseekers and employers to find a good match. She has been volunteering since 2004 and said the process works effectively for both the jobseekers and the volunteers.
Smith shared that they have had employers come back after 10 or 15 years to share their wonderful feedback of the people they have employed through the service. Volunteers said that they have met lovely people through the service and hope that they will be able to find employment.
Jobseekers arrive at the church from 8am on Tuesday mornings and prospective employers arrive at 9am to interview candidates. Many of the jobseekers said that they hope more people will use the service to hire them.
Joseph Dembo, one of the jobseekers, said that he has used the service once before and is hopeful he will be able to find some work. He said that the volunteers at the church are so kind that they help make the process easier.
The service helps jobseekers free of charge but requests a R200 donation from employers which funds the soup kitchen at the church.
For more details, email Heather Garrett on garretth@mweb.co.za
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