Beggars campaign launched
Community groups have joined forces to educate the public not to give to street children.
COMMUNITY members are partnering to help give street children a future.
Bulwer Community Safety Forum's Heather Rorick, Wayne Grundy from Save Our Berea, and I Care have joined forces to educate the public not to give to street children and beggars in the Berea and Glenwood areas.
The group has been working on a pamphlet emphasising the issue of giving food and money to street children and beggars, and focuses on the wording, 'Begging offers children no hope or future, please think before giving money to children on the street.'
They hope to distribute the pamphlets out at I Care awareness days on the streets and in local shopping centres.
Wayne first thought it was a good idea to use this sort of measure to curb giving to beggars, after seeing what had been done successfully in Cape Town with its Give Responsibly Campaign. Berea Mail featured an article on this last year, but at the time, Wayne said the idea was put on hold as street pole adverts were too costly.
A meeting was held on Tuesday, 9 December, in Glenwood where the designer of the pamphlet and the group discussed the best ways to distribute the pamphlets in the community and how er,and the group came up with ideas to have these pamphlets disseminated in the community, as well as placing posters on street light poles in an effort to discourage people from giving to beggars.
Heather suggested it would be a good idea to approach Safer Cities to sponsor this, as it was a community initiative.
Wayne said the group aimed to have the pamphlets and posters up at schools, colleges and in churches and restaurants in the area to educate residents.
“By doing this, we are stopping people being on the street when they are older than 18 years old. If you don't catch this early, these children are going to get more desperate. We want to help them now before they get too old, to nip it in the bud, before they turn to crime and drugs to survive. We are trying to come up with solutions. People sit in the community and call us heartless for not wanting them to give to these street kids, but we are not, we urge them to attend meetings and help us come up with solutions,” he said.
Anne Slatter from I Care said she was very excited about the project.
“It is great to get support from the community groups, it is so important to get the message out as to who we are and what we do, and how we can work for the city. We have to educate the public,” she said.
The group is looking for a printing company to help print pamphlets and posters. If you can help, contact amathongo@gmail.com or Heather on 074 203 2792.
