PaperMoney makes a difference as public responds warmly to street people project

ONE of the newspaper vendors who is part of the PaperMoney project says the project has already affected his life in a positive way.

Thabani Chauca, 24, managed to sell 15 of his newspapers to one buyer, putting R75 in his pocket.

“He just asked me how many papers I had left. I said I had 15. So he said he would take all of them. Just like that.”

The PaperMoney project – launched this week at Durban intersections – asks motorists to give the uniformed sellers paper money – R10 – half of which will be kept by the homeless person.

Its partners include Urban Lime Properties, Independent Media and the Denis Hurley Centre.

Chauca, who usually begged at the intersection of Smiso Nkwanyana (Goble) Road and Masabalala Yengwa (NMR) Avenue, said the project had already made a difference in his life. The paper sale had also given him a chance to sleep in a shelter this week.

“This will grow step-bystep. It’s already progressing.”

The project’s co-ordinator, Stuart Talbot, said most motorists seemed open to the idea and wanted to participate.

“Some are still a bit aggressive and get annoyed with the guys. But it is going up. Every day, there is an improvement.”

Urban Lime Properties chief executive Jonny Friedman said: “Our hope is that South Africa will lead the way with this fairly simple framework and that PaperMoney will be adopted in other cities around the world. We want more global idea-sharing about how to tackle social problems in urban areas which are forecast to explode in population numbers over the next decade. This same problem – begging at the traffic lights – is prevalent in almost every major city in the world.

“Early signs are very encouraging and motorists, vendors and the public are extremely positive. “There are so many humbling and surprising stories coming from our vendors who are, in the main, just regular people looking to get by in life.”