Teaching to be an essential service?
On-street pampering for homeless
IT WAS all about manicures, pedicures, foot washes and haircuts at Durban’s Denis Hurley Centre yesterday when 1 400 homeless people were treated to a day of pampering.
It was the city’s second Street Store event – a concept originally devised by Jewish woman Kayli Vee Levitan in Cape Town and which has now taken off worldwide.
The idea is to give a dignified “shopping experience” on the street to those who cannot afford to splurge in a real store. The centre partnered with the Grace Family Church in umhlanga to host yesterday’s event, alongside several sponsors.
Homeless people were served hot meals by the Durban central branch of Food for Life and had manicures or pedicures by Sorbet Durban North.
Each homeless person was greeted by a personal shopper who helped him or her to fill one big bag with clothes of their choice. Both the young and old took part in the day’s activities.
Sandy Degoeder, 70, was among one of the volunteers on the hair styling team who offered haircuts and beard grooming to the homeless.
“It’s been wonderful and the appreciation we received from the homeless was heart-warming. It was actually nicer to work with them than normal clients. They were so pleasant and appreciative.”
Degoeder said the highlight of her morning was when one homeless man named Brian said to her: “Make me look handsome. I am going for a job interview on Monday.”
Event director Raymond
No ice cream so boy couldn’t go home to mom
LONDON: Social workers tried to stop a mother and her 8-year-old son from being reunited because she refused to take him out for an ice cream, a high court judge said on Friday.
Other reasons the boy was prevented from going to live with his mother included her refusing to let him to have the haircut he wanted.
Sir Nicholas Mostyn condemned Welsh social workers who used the ice cream incident and the mother’s stand on the haircut as reasons he should go on living with foster parents.
The judge said the reasons were insubstantial and ruled that the boy should go back to live with his mother. – Daily Mail of Perrier was also pleased with the resounding turnout.
“It was great to see so many people come out to enjoy what was on offer.
“The haircuts were a lovely part of it all as the homeless got to enjoy the human touch. This is something they do not get often.”
Perrier said volunteers also went the extra mile by washing feet – a symbolic gesture representative of the Last Supper when Jesus used “washing the feet of his disciples as a model of servant leadership”. TEACHERS may be barred from embarking on strike action if the latest attempts to have the profession declared an essential service are successful.
The Department of Labour’s essential services committee (ESC) is investigating the possibility of declaring basic education an essential service and the SA Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu), is not dismissive of the plans.
ESC chairperson Advocate Luvuyo Bono told the Sunday Tribune that there have been many unsuccessful bids to make teaching an essential service but this time the committee will be taking into account the services “rendered by educators and support staff in basic education including early childhood development (ECD)”.
“You surely cannot leave children (in ECD centres and special schools) when there is a strike,” he said.
Sadtu’s general secretary Mugwena Maluleke said: “We cannot pre-empt it (basic education becoming an essential service); that is why there needs to be a dialogue.”
According to Maluleke, Sadtu has not been formally informed of the ESC’S investigation but are expecting a letter from the committee as one of the key stakeholders in education.
The ESC received an application from outgoing DA MP Ian Ollis and Bono, who said he had already met and engaged with the official opposition to explain the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) position on education.
The ILO is yet to declare education and teaching an essential service but its freedom of association committee has agreed that principals and their deputies can have their right to strike restricted or even prohibited, according to Ollis’ application which this newspaper has seen.
Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga has already told the National Assembly that her department would support the declaration of a minimum service level agreement for school staff by the ESC when children are left unsupervised during school hours.