Maoka brings hope to the displaced

DISPLACED Persons Sub-Unit administration assistant Kagiso Michael Maoka devotes his time to helping homeless people and substance users get skills and gain employment in the future.

Maoka first started as a volunteer at Windsor West homeless shelter near Cresta and used to help around the facility before he was appointed as an administration assistant at 03 Kotze Street Overnight Shelter.

“I started at Windsor as a volunteer for six months. I had no job, I used to go to the facility only to have a meal and a shower, then I saw some posts and later in the year I got the job,” Maoka said.

The purpose of the facility is to provide Johannesburg residents living on the streets with support programmes such as family reunification, drug rehabilitation and skills development such as computers and security.

Initially, the facility mainly focused on helping South African displaced citizens, but due to an increase in the number of people from the neighbouring countries living on the streets, the shelter now accommodates any individuals who have an identification document to avoid robbery, violence and rape on the streets.

People can walk in and others are recruited from the assessment centre, the Governor’s House, where homeless people go to have their first meal and shower of the day.

“The Joburg Metro Police Department and the City Parks and Zoo employees also play a vital role in identifying those who are sleeping in the streets or parks and refer them to the shelter,” Maoka says.

The Displaced Persons Sub-Unit provides three meals a day.

Each floor has showers and toilets. Women are accommodated on different floors from men. Each floor consists of 12 rooms, with 12 beds a room. There is a spacious sitting room that is also used for discussion sessions and a kitchen.

The shelter has over 300 homeless people from different homelands and asks community members to donate items of comfort, including blankets and pillows, as well as non-perishable food items.

“Life is a matter of privilege because while some live a life of luxury, some just fail to make ends meet,” says the head of the Displaced Persons Sub-Unit in the health and social development portfolio, Kebonye Senna.

Although Maoka is grateful to have as job, he concedes that working with people can be hard sometimes.

“With the shortage in the nursing, psychological and security sector, it creates challenges such as theft within the facility, as some situations don’t only need social workers but the staff who deal with vulnerable people,” Maoka says. |