While giving money to someone on the street may make you feel like you’re helping, it can do more harm than good, becoming a weight that holds that person to a life on the streets. Shelters across the city are set up in a way that allows them to make better use of the funds they get, stretching a small amount and helping more people and doing more good. But the funds they rely on often end up in the wrong hands, where it can’t reach its full potential.
Shelters are not a long-term home or a place where street people are sent to live. The reality is that they are a place for rehabilitation and reintegration. With the money they receive, they can provide I.D. books so a street person can find work, clothes, underwear and socks so they can start fresh, warm blankets and beds so they enjoy a safe night’s sleep and support in the form of meeting with social workers so they can get their life back on track. They also supply warm meals, cold and flu medication and small things we take for granted, like sanitary pads and a toothbrush, which are desperately needed to help someone feel more human and restore their dignity.
The campaign makes donating to a shelter just as easy as passing a coin through your window by using SnapScan to donate. Simply holding your phone up to the code and scanning it with the SnapScan app puts money into the right hands, that of the shelters, and helps them improve the lives of many more people.
What does it cost a shelter to give back someone’s dignity?
One hot meal - R30
One bed per night - R60
One social work engagement - R200
Underwear - R25
Socks – R30
Adult nappies - R100 per pack
Skills programme per person - R2000
Reintegration costs – starting at R700
Cost of I.D. with photographs – R200
Dignity pack per person – R150
Thick blanket – R250
Visit https://www.capetown.gov.za/Campaigns/give%20dignity to donate to a City shelter now, because, in the right hands, your donation can go further.
This post and content is sponsored, written and provided by the City of Cape Town.
