A Woodstock-based organisation that caters for the needs of elderly people recently opened its newly renovated Corner Shop with a Living Library portrait exhibition.
The Neighbourhood Old Age Homes (NOAH) Corner Shop based on the corners of Regent and Essex streets will be used as a coffee shop and an extension of NOAH’s Selling Seconds store.
The organisation was established in 1981 by Catholic Welfare and Development (CWD), in response to the need for safe and affordable accommodation for the elderly.
It started with one communal home for social pensioners, but today’s model of support ensures that more than 730 social pensioners can live dignified lives.
Jane Mills, Director for NOAH, says: “We want to help social pensioners, who only have their Sassa grant, to live independently in the communities. We do this by giving them jobs, we give affordable accommodation, world-class primary health care, psychosocial support and counselling among other things.”
Mills says plans to start the Corner Shop started eight years ago and adds that the building had to be renovated.
“The project is eight years in the making. It will be run by our beneficiaries. Everyone is so excited. This is a community project; we want the community and the neighbours to benefit. We want Woodstock to benefit. It is not only about our beneficiaries. It’s a new chapter.”
According to Mills, the Living Library exhibition features 20 elders with each photo providing some information about them.
“We exhibited photos which were taken by a Dutch photographer Noortje de Leeuw who we started working with. She took portraits of our beneficiaries in Khayelitsha and Woodstock. The people who are portrayed on the walls were there on the day of the launch. The Living Library exhibition reminds us of the people on whose shoulders we stand who are so often invisible and forgotten.”
She says De Leeuw has offered to do photo booths at both their Khayelitsha and Woodstock branches throughout the year.
“Families and communities in and around the areas who maybe never had a family portrait will be able to have one for free.”
Mills explains that they are hoping to open the Corner Shop and be fully operational within the next two months but adds they require more donations to realise this.
“We are hoping to open the shop and be operational within the next month and a half. We are looking for various things for the Corner Shop. We need shelving to be installed. We also need a new safety gate. Our courtyard also needs to be covered so that we can park vehicles. Bric and brac items that are still in good condition are also welcome. We resell all items from clothes to unused household items.”
