Saving society’s ‘discards’
Poor people begging on street corners is a common sight. spoke to a concerned citizen fighting this social scourge
RECOVERING from a back operation at Mediclinic Pietermaritzburg, Father Stephen Tully said he wasn’t going to let an opportunity pass where he could talk about an issue close to his heart.
“My back will recover, so that’s nothing. The greater need lies with Durban’s poorest of the poor, whose numbers on the street are growing daily. Junk status, recession and political turmoil are making matters worse. As things get tough for ordinary people this lower strata gets more and more overlooked and forgotten.”
It is this weighty social problem that has brought to the fore a bold and far-reaching free rehab, educational and interfaith plan – believed to be the first of its kind in the country – to help society’s discarded street people get back on their feet and start life again.
If there is anyone who can take on such a challenging mission, it is this softly spoken Catholic priest with family roots in Durban who helped found the Denis Hurley Centre alongside the city’s Emmanuel Cathedral.
“It was the support of the Catholic Church and people like Archbishop Denis Hurley and our own Cardinal Wilfrid Napier that helped open people’s eyes to the plight of the poor and vulnerable on the city’s streets. Alcohol abuse, drug addiction, dysfunctional family life, criminality and disease were all part of this sad cycle. What we offered was an interfaith-based sanctuary – no questions asked; kind words, a nourishing meal and the offer to rehabilitate those who wanted to change their lifestyle.”
This work and the focus and vision set out by the Denis Hurley Centre, he explains, is now under the directorship of human rights activist and theologian Raymond Perrier. On a wider front, Father Tully accepts that the realities of homelessness and hopelessness are a complex dynamic wherever you are in the world.
“One has to be non-judgemental and a pragmatist when it comes to these issues,” he says.
“There are no miracle cures. Those addicted to whoonga won’t go off it overnight. Those addicted to alcohol won’t suddenly give up drink and lead a clean life. There will be relapses.
“Those who thieve to feed their habit won’t turn into angels. You always have to factor those truths into whatever you do.”
But it’s reducing the risk of failure that this new mission is about, he explains. It’s also taking the firstlevel rehab process a lot further.
That’s when we turn our focus to the new Napier Centre 4 Healing (NC4H), a street-level rehabilitation centre in Verulam, that will initially take in 14 men who have volunteered to leave the street environment, have been through the initial detoxification process.
The healing centre, funded not only by Catholic Church funds, but several donors and hopefully supported by government and local authorities, is in its initial stage and is due to open in January.
“We were lucky enough to be given an old school building and outhouses and a small area of ground at the Ekukhanyeni Mission,” says Father Tully.
“A volunteer builder is doing all the renovations using his own personal funds.
“When it is finished we will have accommodation, kitchen, ablutions, and an interfaith prayer space, enough to get things going.”
The accommodation will include a cottage for a house mother and father who will act as mentors and be a guiding force for the new residents.
“Looking at a best practice strategy for the facility was a case of treading new ground,” says Father Tully. “The Harmony Retreat Centre at Greytown, for example, has a 30% success rate with treating paying addicts compared with 3% at other facilities. They put it down to having house ‘parents’ on the premises who interact with the recovering addicts and offer a comforting shoulder, as well as encouraging a strong focus on building one’s spiritual life. So we adopted this idea.”
To date no large-scale studies have been done in South Africa on the success rate of street people and those sleeping rough beating their addictions. The simple answer is that street people don’t have money to pay for expensive treatment, so there are limited records.
The bigger question is why these people are on the streets? Why did they succumb to extreme addiction when many don’t?
First, says Father Tully, you have to define happiness. It comes from a sense of belonging, a belief that even when times are bad they will get better, and the knowledge that somebody cares.
“There are many intelligent people living on the streets who have simply lost all hope, mainly young men between the ages of 18 and 35. They don’t have money to spend on rehab, so getting out of the gutter is almost impossible.
“Whatever blunts their agony, they will take.”
What people like Father Tully and the team he works with do know from their own research is that those on the street want two things – to be rehabilitated and to get a job.
“At our new centre that is precisely what we aim to achieve.”
Central to that idea is upskilling, he says. “Our plan is to set up vegetable gardens and train people in horticulture and have workshops where basic skills like plumbing and woodwork are taught. When people leave they will be more skilled and hopefully less likely to regress.”
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