EThekwini Municipality with the Department of Social Development are working to ensure that people living in homeless shelters across the city are reunited with their families post-lockdown.
Thirty homeless people have already been reunited with their families during the lockdown period. The department has also deployed about 51 social workers to conduct psychosocial interventions in all the shelters across the city.
Safer Cities senior manager, Nomusa Shembe said the reunification project allowed social workers to engage with homeless people keen on returning home post-lockdown. “During the interprovincial travel window that was opened for seven days, a lot of people who were not from the province were reunited with their families, who had confirmed with the social workers that they want their family members back,” she said.
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The families were able to transfer monies to buy tickets for their family members.
“Other people who were reunited during the same period were those coming from other parts of KwaZulu-Natal such as Newcastle, Eshowe and Richards Bay. Although a high number of the people who are in shelters are from eThekwini, those who have been reunited with their families were people who had been reported missing by their families. Through the project, we will be able to assist even more people by reuniting them with their families once the lockdown levels and restrictions ease,” Shembe added.
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