Women from local shelter spend night on street
The search for a church building to establish such a shelter soon proved to be more challenging than they thought.
Even though Melodie van Brakel and Gert Jonker, founders of Tower of Life shelter have begged the community for help, the night of Thursday, 14 September still saw 12 women and a baby sleeping on the streets.
Approximately four-and-a-half years ago this shelter was established in an effort to offer homeless people safe overnight accommodation. However, they quickly came to realise the implications of men and women sleeping under the same roof. Even though bed-sharing is not allowed, it was difficult to control.
Read article: Tower of Life women in need of new shelter
“Even though the building is secured by guards, one can’t really control these things. We have had incident where a woman would share a bed with a man, and a few months later she would share a bed with another man,” Jonker said.
“It creates problems and could have further implications. There are also a lot fewer women than men, which makes it hard for women to retain their dignity,” he said.
This is why Van Brakel and Jonker have come to the conclusion that it’s not practical for men and women to be sleeping under the same roof, and they are now looking to establish a similar shelter for women only.
But the search for a church building to establish such a shelter soon proved to be more challenging than they thought, which resulted in several women sleeping on the sidewalk on the corner of Rissik and Church Streets across from the Tower of Life building.
When the News visited the women the following morning, they said that even though they had spent the night out on the streets, Van Brakel still made sure they went to sleep with full tummies and enough blankets.
“Volunteers provided us with nice vegetable soup, a proper dinner and even pudding. Mel stayed with us until just before 10pm to ensure we were warm and comfortable. She also made sure that we were able to access the Tower of Life’s bathroom,” said one of the women, who wished to remain anonymous.
This group of women said they are making a positive statement.
“We maintained our dignity, which is important to us. We stuck together and we’re all in good spirits – still laughing,” another woman said.
For these women the Tower of Life is their only option as they have nowhere else to go.
“During the past 10 days we have been trying to raise awareness for their plight, but it seems no one cares,” Melodie cried out on a Facebook post.
The question is: How long will these women be able to remain positive?
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