People's Post Retreat - 18 August 2020-1-12

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RETREAT

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The Haven Night Shelter in Retreat assists the vulnerable with food and shelter at a low cost. PHOTO: RACINE EDWARDES

RETREAT

‘No hunger at the Haven’ RACINE EDWARDES RACINE.EDWARDES@MEDIA24.COM @RAEEDWARDES

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resident at Haven Night Shelter in Retreat has reached out to the media for assistance; pleading for donations of food to the welfare organisation, claiming the well had run dry. The complainant said, over several consecutive days, they were fed soup at dinner time and were given small amounts of food at breakfast and lunch. “The clients at the Haven in Retreat wake up in the morning at 06:00 and have their mealie meal at 06:30. That is a bowl of porridge every morning at 06:30. The next meal is at 13:00, which is four slices of bread every day, then at supper time, soup is served on a regular basis,” he wrote. “Then there are those people who happen to go to work in the morning or go to source work; unfortunately, there is no food – a

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lunch box – for these people to carry to work, which means that they will starve all day long and when they return from work they are once again welcomed with a bowl of soup.” The complainant alleged that a supervisor at the shelter told him that no food could be given to those who head out during the day to seek employment as there was “no food”. Hassan Khan, chief executive officer at the shelter, says these claims are simply untrue. “The Haven organises food adequate to the needs of the clients. During Covid-19 we also feed the homeless still on the street. There is no need for a client or someone not connected to the Haven to make a call for donations on behalf of the Haven,” he says, explaining that there is no food shortage at the organisation as they have a strong network and community of donors, who are “quite generous”. The meals offered to the clients at the shelter are planned based on the donations re-

ceived from local supermarkets and other donors. Khan further states that food is so readily available; that residents are able to return for seconds and thirds at any mealtime as they please. This is all covered in their shelter fees for each resident. Khan explains that their fee is R1 150 per person, monthly, if they receive a grant; this category being the one that the complainant says he falls into. “After all their needs (at the Haven) have been met the grant recipient would have close to R1 000 disposable income. There are few, if any, South African grant recipients who have this much disposable income after all their needs have been met.” Khan adds that indigent clients pay R15 per day, or one hour of labour, doing chores, in lieu of payment. In the complainant’s letter, the claim was also made that residents were prevented from making tea or coffee, “as the manager restricts this by saying that there is no elec-

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tricity for the urn or hot water to be available for clients during the day”. “This is regarded as a privilege and hot water can only be available at night after supper,” he wrote. But Khan says this is also false. “Clients are prevented from plugging in appliances in the bedrooms as it is both a health concern and we have had these appliances trip the electricity and it takes a long time to locate the fault,” he says, adding hot water is available in the dining room. In conclusion, Khan says the Haven has an “access to justice process”. “If anyone is unhappy or requires anything, they write it down and state the problem, how they’ve tried to resolve it and they can hand it to a host who tries to sort it out. They have three days to sort it out internally before it is directed to the head office,” he says. “If there’s something wrong I’m willing to investigate it, and we have an operations manager who does that.”

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