This Women’s Month, IOL will be focusing its attention on a group of women among the most vulnerable in, and often shunned by South African society — those who live on the streets.
IOL’s Elevate Her campaign is aimed at uplifting the homeless women of the country’s three biggest metros, Cape Town, Durban, and Johannesburg, and drawing attention to the struggles they face.
Often treated with disdain by fellow residents of the city, the homeless and housing insecure also fall victim to the dogged enforcement of draconian bylaws.
They are stripped of their dignity.
“IOL seeks to restore this lost dignity, and highlight our common humanity — the housed and unhoused, the homed and homeless,” said IOL Editor Lance Witten.
“In many cases, housed and homed families are just one missed paycheck away from being homeless themselves and finding themselves on the street.
“When I led the Dignity Project editorial campaign championed by the Cape Argus in 2016, the goal was to get residents of Cape Town to see each other, for us to recognise homeless people as human, to acknowledge them, greet them, to open a deeper conversation about how we value, and interact with each other.
“It’s a campaign that continues to this day, a fact about which I am immensely proud,” Witten said.
Now IOL is taking the campaign to restore dignity nationwide, through its Elevate Her campaign.
Throughout the month of August, IOL will be featuring homeless women and their stories on its homepage and on its social media platforms, highlighting their challenges, struggles and triumphs as they traverse their journey of homelessness.
In addition, IOL has also embarked on a drive to collect much needed toiletries and essential items for the homeless women of the three metros.
Working with trusted organisations across the country, IOL will be distributing dignity packs consisting of toiletries, sanitary towels and underwear.
The Elevate Her campaign has received support from a number of corporate and government stakeholders.
“The Department of Social Development would like to encourage potential donors and volunteers to add their support to this project so that it can reach as many vulnerable homeless women as possible,” Western Cape Social Development Head of Department Dr Robert Macdonald said in a letter of support to IOL.
“While the Province Department of Social Development funds shelters, including U-Turn, for basic requirements like bed spaces food, and social services, financial constraints limit the extent to which the full range of needs of vulnerable people can be met in existing shelter spaces. We therefore welcome the additional supplies that this project can provide,” Dr Macdonald said.
IOL would like to invite you, our audience, to contribute towards our campaign. Send an email to [email protected] to find out more.
IOL