Uplifting Melville one clean-up at a time
Read about how a local upliftment team is cleaning up the community selflessly.
How does one upliftment team positively add to a community? By cleaning up its neighbourhood selflessly, of course.
Based within the Melville Security Initiative footprint is the an upliftment team that was started in about seven months by local, Danyle Nunes, in an effort to help the the city with minor upkeep. Nunes soon formed relationships with various city departments and established ways the team could assist them to improve service delivery around the area.
“We help City Parks, Pikitup, Joburg Water, City power and Joburg Roads Agency by carrying out the more simple but overlooked responsibilities,” said Nunes.
Over June and July he met three men – Thabani, who came to his home in search of a job; Vusi, who he had seen for years in the community collecting recyclable materials – “Little by little I noticed him make his loads lighter.He is a hard worker but I could see the cart he pulls was starting to take its toll so I approached him to see if I could perhaps help him with more stable work.”
He met Thabiso, who is also unemployed, at the Melpark Sports Complex. While sitting and reading they struck up a conversation and Nunes asked him to join the team. “It’s quite rewarding to see these men happy and smiling. I asked Thabani on his first day why he seemed so happy and his response was simple, ‘I feel productive again’.”
According to Nunes, Thabiso also feels like working and making a positive impact on the environment around him; it is very rewarding and stimulating as he even collects equipment in his uniform on days when the team isn’t active, just to keep busy. “The project is meant to teach individuals new skills while helping us address the crimes associated to the broken window theory.”
He described the upliftment team as a classic example of giving someone a hand-up and not a hand-out. The team is active once to twice a week and they focus on the busier streets of Melville as according to Nunes, these are the routes that create the community’s image to passing people. He thanked a fellow community member, who, once a month, lends them their bakkie to help the team with cleaning up the community.
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