Homeless empowered with first aid skills

ONE way that the Denis Hurley Centre (DHC) equips Durban’s homeless to earn an income is through their street bookseller project, Street Lit, which sees vendors sell pre-owned books. During the festive season, book vendors gained permission from the eThekwini Municipality to sell along the beachfront and prior to that, book vendors received first aid training at St John’s Medical Centre.

Richard Nzima, one of the vendors, said the course had been a fulfilling experience.

“It’s been wonderful. Life is a journey, you never know what to expect. If you are in a situation it is fulfilling to know how to assist. It’s a development from book selling to another level of providing service to people on the street,” he said.

Gina Bezuidenhout, project manager at St Johns said it was one of the first courses hosted in association with DHC.

“The instructor went through CPR, choking, bleeding techniques- how to control bleeding, the type of injuries that the book vendors will possibly come across in the streets,” she said.

Also read: Homeless call community to get on the same page

Bezuidenhout added that the skills taught in the course are useful for all members of society.

“I’d like to see CPR being taught at schools because it’s the first step to being able to help somebody. It does save lives. Initial treatment is important until ambulances can get there. They have such a tremendous workload dealing with everything out on the streets, and if you’ve got first aiders out there, there’s someone who knows what to do in an emergency situation and stay calm,” she said.

Services offered at St John’s include affordable, quality eye care, medical cover and standby for all types of events. Established in 1883, St John’s is a non profit organisation. Their community projects include first aid awareness and training in schools, water awareness, and a vision for eye care.

Empowering the homeless with skills is the best way to help according to DHC, which pointed to a survey commissioned by eThekwini Municipality which revealed that what 72 per cent of homeless people most want is an opportunity to work so they can get off the streets.

“We are pleased that this December a number of initiatives have enabled some disadvantaged men and women to stay off the streets and earn a decent living—decent not only for the way in which they earn money but also the amount they can earn. Tsogo Sun, who were early supporters of the DHC, invited us to recommend candidates for seasonal work in their beachfront hotels,” said DHC director, Raymond Perrier.

Also read: Denis Hurley Centre reflects on a year of empowering Durban’s homeless

He added that Stuart Talbot, DHC empowerment co-ordinator, led a group of homeless through an exercise of preparing for assessments and interviews.

“Even if not all were successful, it was still a useful programme for them. In the end, two young men who have been on our joint residential programme with iCare, and one who is completing the rehab programme at the Napier Centre 4 Healing, were selected and started working at the Garden Court South Beach,” said Perrier.

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