Homeless empowerment for A Re Sebetseng clean-up

Ward 104 councillor Mike Wood and other volunteers cleaned up the area surrounding the Home Affairs complex on Malibongwe Drive as part of the mayor’s monthly A Re Sebetseng clean-up initiative on 21 April.

“We had volunteers join us from across Randburg and even parts of Bryanston on Saturday, and I would call the initiative a huge success,” Wood said.

The volunteers cleaned up litter and also helped to clean and neaten the foliage in the area.

On this particular event, Wood decided to do things a little differently.

“I would like to try and empower all members of our community and get them involved in activities like this, so we employed four homeless gentlemen who work with a charity called Doorway to Dignity to help us with the cleaning activities on the day,” Wood said.

Doorway to Dignity seeks to empower homeless people by finding small jobs for them to earn an income.

Wood continued, “I would like to work with Doorway to Dignity on this and other projects on an ongoing basis.”

Trevor Webster from Doorway to Dignity said, “We got a call from the ward councillor asking if we could help in the initiative, so we pulled a team together and headed down there.

“The nice thing about an initiative like this is it helps to get people from different worlds together to help in one initiative. You can have one person helping who is homeless, and another who works in the government.”

The Doorway to Dignity initiative seeks to change the mindset of those who they help, and those who employ them, to show that homeless people can be active members of the community.
In other areas of the ward, members of the Ferndale Residents Association helped to clean up the Ferndale Spruit area.

Wood encourages all members of the public to join the mayor’s monthly A Re Sebetseng clean-up initiative, which takes place on the third Saturday of each month.

Details: Mike Wood 082 853 2174.

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