Homeless receive blankets in Centurion as cold front bites
“People sleeping on the streets in Centurion are around 5 000. There are different reasons why people are homeless, especially in Centurion.”
A local councillor and an NGO have pampered homeless people in Centurion with warm soup and blankets to survive the cold front.
Ward 69 councillor Cindy Billson and Give Hope NGO started the blanket drive over the weekend.
Billson said the day was fulfilling as community members came together to bring change to the less fortunate.
“It was a good day, but more can be done. I would love to get a coupon system in place where donations are made to an organisation that assists the homelessness in Centurion… that residents can give to people begging,” she said.
The councillor said the coupon idea would be able to address the needs holistically and get to a space where dignity would be restored to people.
Billson started the blanket drive back in 2000 together with the NGO, while she was working in Hillbrow, Johannesburg.
She urged residents to assist with donations as currently, they were about 11 000 homeless people just in the inner city.
The councillor alluded the metro was helping the Pen organisation to address homelessness in the city.
“The people sleeping on the streets in Centurion are around 5 000. There are different reasons why people are homeless, especially in Centurion.”
Billson said there were organisations in various suburbs that focused primarily on helping destitute people.
She said these organisations did not provide accommodation and meals but wanted to change the cycle of poverty.
However, other organisations such as Basadi Ba Moshito said currently they did not have blankets to donate to the homeless people.
“We might not be able to donate now, but we are continuing with our programme of distributing food every Monday without fail,” organisation CEO Antoinette Maluleka said.
Currently, there is no exact number of how many homeless people in the country but the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) estimates between 100 000 and 200 000 citizens live on the streets.
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