Many homeless if another shelter closes down
If the Christian Life Saver Foundation cannot find funding soon, they will be forced to close down, leaving many including elderly folks and children with nowhere to go but the streets.
When the Grace House shelter was on the brink of closing down a few months ago, everyone panicked. But along came the Christian Lifesavers Foundation to try to save the sinking ship.
They took over the shelter and started dreaming about the recovery of Krugersdorp’s most vulnerable residents. They lined up a sponsor who promised to pay their water, electricity and rent for six months, and then they started to put their plans in motion.
Sadly, the News recently learned that the sponsor for this shelter is failing to honour its commitments. There is now a very strong possibility that almost 80 grown-ups and about 10 children will be living on the streets very soon.
This comes after shelters in the area have been closing down over the past year, leaving the shelters still running, full to capacity and struggling to look after the people they have space for.
Recently, the Makhulugama informal settlement, near West Village, was destroyed, with the effect that almost 250 people are currently homeless and living in a hall in Krugersdorp West, in a town where there already are too few shelters.
On Monday evening, 26 August, the power to the Christian Life Savers Foundation’s shelter was cut and residents were forced to start living in total darkness. Imagine the children having to take a cold shower and then having to walk to school and continue with their day.
Most of the residents at the shelter are elderly people, said JJ van Niekerk and Elize Erasmus, the two people who took on the mammoth task of keeping the shelter open.
“I just want others to realise how quickly you end up in a situation where you have nothing and nowhere to go,” JJ explained.
In the two months that they have been in charge of the shelter, four people have found work, three people have been sent to rehab and another eight are being prepared to go to rehab. They have 10 people who have repented and have also started with skills programmes for the residents.
By doing building work and odd jobs for people around town, they have provided some of the residents with work.
Elize planned to open a hair salon and coffee shop within the next month and if all went well, the shelter would have been self-sufficient within a few months.
JJ and Eliza said all they are asking is that the businesses in the community donate some of their Corporate Social Investment funds to their shelter.
Another shelter closing could have an astronomical effect on the rest of the community as well, with more people living on the streets, more people begging and more people going hungry.
As it is, the remaining shelters are already struggling to cope under the pressure of feeding hundreds of homeless and struggling mouths each day.
To find out more or to help, phone JJ on 072 312 9111 or Elize on 073 689 2021.
