Camp Edgar homeless outreach restores dignity
A Cape Town mom takes people off the streets to help them kick bad habits
AS NIGHT falls in Cape Town, areas of the city transform into a volatile arena conducive to violence and drug abuse. As such, many people who are subjected to a life on the streets paint a bleak picture regarding their future, but there are those in the City who are far from giving up on these troubled individuals.
Venetia Orgill, a Cape Town mother whose family history is painfully intertwined with similar issues, is a leading light in the fight against homelessness.
Orgill, whose own son and daughter became heavily involved with drugs, is making a major stand against Cape Town’s homeless problem, providing numerous people with a hot meal in the Company’s Garden every Thursday and taking a further 12 on a winter-long Strandfontein camping excursion.
Having worked with the homeless and drug addicts for about 15 years, Orgill is all too aware of the dangers surrounding drug use. And having lost son Theo, a recovering addict, to suicide in 2008, she is determined to make an impact on the lives of others in the hope that those living on the street can turn from drugs and reunite with estranged friends and families.
Orgill believes her personal experiences help her create close bonds and form trusting relationships with the homeless.
“They look at me and they see a person who has gone through it all before and come out the other end. Maybe they think, if I can do it, why can’t they?”
Currently, Orgill is running the Winter Restoration Camp Edgar 2018, a winter-long Strandfontein visit which has taken 12 homeless people off the streets and provided them with an opportunity to kick their drug habit.
The camp, named after Edgar Vercuiel, a homeless person who hoped to attend the camp but died of a heart attack early last month, brings together a select few individuals who attend Orgill’s Thursday sessions at the Company’s Garden.
Since the beginning of the camp in June, three of the original 12 have been reunited with their family and another has entered rehab.
For Orgill, this is perhaps the most rewarding part of her role.
“It brings a tear to my eye when people who were at such a low point reconnect with their family.
“Recently I had a call from the mother of a person staying at camp who called him just to say she was thinking about him. “Hearing that is fantastic.” The remaining people will remain in Strandfontein until late October, though Orgill hopes a permanent facility will soon become available for her to provide similar opportunities all year round.