A Sea Point non-profit organisation (NPO) has partnered with the Colin Eglin Sea Point Library to provide users, particularly former street people, with vital computer literacy skills.
Project Hope (Homelessness Outreach Prevention and Education) operating in the Sea Point, Fresnaye and Bantry Bay areas aims to offer services of reintegration of homeless people into communities.
Kevin Alexander, Project Hope fieldwork coordinator, says: “At Project Hope we believe in empowering our homeless workers and supervisors on their way to independent living and reintegration into communities. We have recently partnered with Sea Point Library to provide essential computer skills training to our clients.”
Alexander says one of their objectives is to assist people living on the street to restore their dignity by offering them social work services, placement at shelters and safe spaces where available.
He says they also offer them basic employment opportunities in street cleaning and beach conservation.
“We currently have 60 workers and 12 supervisors keeping the streets and beaches in the area clean seven days a week working in small teams. We believe it’s important to provide essential life skills training to our workers and supervisors to upskill them towards independent living in a sustainable way.”
Alexander says the training project kicked off earlier this month.
“We started empowering our clients with basic computer skills training in partnership with the Sea Point Library that provides the facilities and facilitators for two trainees per day. This arrangement allows us to place two clients per week on training. The computer skills training is a huge success and welcomed by our former street people.”
Alexander says at Project Hope each client is assisted to apply for an identity document.
“The library issues each client with a library card. This enables them to use the library at other times outside training periods as well.”
Tania Blignaut, Assistant Librarian, who helps facilitate the digital literacy programmes, says: “We have been admiring the good work of Project Hope for a while now. And our senior librarian, Katherine Moon, liaised with Project Hope and it was decided that three mornings per week, two Project Hope clients will come to the library for basic computer lessons.”
Blignaut says they aim to upskill and empower them.
“We start from the beginning asking them do they know what a mouse is. Our first two clients had some previous basic training. And we can see the improvement already. Their confidence levels are increasing, which is incredible to see.”
She says sessions take place Monday to Wednesday for about 45 minutes to one hour. And the training is free of charge.
The first two clients to have joined the computer skills programme are Gregory Samuels and Karen Nel (worker).
Samuels, a Senior Supervisor at Project Hope, says he joined the project in October last year after living in shelters and on the street for a few years.
He explains that he was a heroin addict for more than 20 years and has been drug-free for the past two years. He now serves as a drug coach at Project Hope.
Samuels says he did have some basic computer training in the past, but says these classes have been an “exciting experience”.
“I am trying to better my life and this is a great opportunity for me. I am learning so much. I have learnt how to work on excel, how to use a keyboard and how to create an email. So, it’s been beneficial to me. I am grateful.”
Nel says she is grateful to be learning new skills.
“I do have some computer knowledge, but they are teaching me things I didn’t know. I am working on excel and learning how to search for things. I find it very helpful.”
- To support Project Hope visit https://www.backabuddy.co.za/champion/project/sfb-project
