- Capetonians have shown great compassion by supporting The Haven Night Shelter’s “Buy a Bed” initiative, which provides meals, beds, and showers to Wynberg’s homeless during winter.
- The campaign, which allows people to donate R75, went viral and has drawn significant community involvement.
- The Haven has extended its services to accommodate the influx of support, ensuring no one is turned away.
Capetonians showed again their compassion for fellow Capetonians when the storms and inclement weather hit the Cape the past three weeks and they became aware of the “Buy a Bed-initiative” for R75 to ensure homeless people in Wynberg at least have a meal, a bed and a shower.
“The advert for the donation of R75 was on the website of The Haven Night Shelter for a long time, but only during winter did it actually kick into action after people saw everything The Haven was doing for homeless people. We brought in more emergency beds for people affected by the floods and storms and etc.com published it on their website and it went viral,” says Shadrick Valayadum, CEO of The Haven Night Shelter.
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“As you know, Capetonians are very compassionate, giving and loving people, and they just shared and shared and everywhere you looked the ‘Buy a Bed’ campaign was advertised. Weeks later, we were getting so many requests, how do I donate, what do you guys do, how can we support The Haven, how many beds do you have and I have answered almost every question that was posed as well as the concerns. People have gone to great lengths to support the initiative and The Haven and I as the CEO of The Haven have put out a directive that no one will be turned away whether we are full or not.
“The homeless people come in the afternoon or evening for the night; we’ll host them for the night and if there is bed space, we’ll house them and if we are packed to capacity we’ll transport them to an alternative Haven shelter where they will have an allocated bed and the rest. Since the campaign went viral we were inundated with requests for sponsorships and donations and after the first few posts I was encouraging communities to become involved. The homeless people are not solely the responsibility of The Haven, the Government or the City only, we all have to come together and take hands to help homeless people as most of them don’t want to come into the shelter. They are quite content to rough it up on the streets in the cold weather,” Valayadum says.
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According to Valayadum, some don’t want to obey rules like doing chores, go bath, etc and when they are in the shelters, they cannot do drugs, although some smuggle the drugs and alcohol in. When they are caught there are measures put in place.
“The initiative will go on until winter is over. One of the questions posed was what happens if I buy a bed for five days? Will the person be put out, and I put out a directive that only under serious offences the stay will be terminated? If there are criminal offences the police are called in and the stay is terminated. Come the five days we’ll keep them and if they want to work with our social workers with their personal development, called the personal development plan, we continue to work with them for up to nine months,” he says.
Donations
The shelter needs double or triple bunks that cost approximately R5 000 each and if businesses can donate/sponsor it would be appreciated. The beds last for 20 to 30 years.
“We have 14 shelters as far as Mossel Bay, Ceres and Malmesbury. What we’ve done is we’ve moved our senior citizens to the outer cities and made them as comfortable as possible because they are staying long-term. We’ll see how we can help them for as long as possible until they go into an old age home and frail care centre or reunite with families. We have shelters in the City, Kensington and Paarl, Bellville, Kalk Bay and Wynberg and there is no excuse for people not to go to shelters.
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“Donations like non-perishables can be delivered at any of the shelters and we’ll give them a Section 18a certificate with our supporting documentation. The Haven is moving in a new direction where we are upscaling our clients and pushing them to be the best they can be. We are not a temporary shelter to look after you for six months. We are a shelter to make sure if you need rehabilitation, medical intervention, or need an ID; we’ll help you through the application, if you are a foreigner and you’ve lost your documents, we’ll help you. Even if you want to reunite with family anywhere in the country, we’ll assist at our own cost. We’ll link you up with your family and help you through this process and if you are reunited we’ll check on you to see if you are well,” Valayadum says.
For more information or donations you can contact Valayadum on 082 381 0384 or email shaddie@haven.org.za.
