December 23, 2002
By Lucille Davie
THERE'S no end to the generosity of Johannesburgers when it comes to volunteering to help their fellow citizens.
In January this year President Mbeki made a call for 2002 to be proclaimed the "Year of the Volunteer" and city residents have risen to the challenge in their thousands, and found no job too daunting.
Perhaps the best illustration of this is the 10 000 volunteers who hit the streets in November this year to reach three million people with the Aids message. At the time Executive Mayor Amos Masondo said: "In every house, shack, hostel, taxi rank or shopping centre, people must receive the message. The ultimate goal is to reach out to everyone."
The campaign was called Siyakhuleka ekhaya (Zulu for "welcome us in"), and the trained volunteers went door-to-door spreading awareness of the disease and lending support to those infected or affected by the pandemic. A similar campaign last year involved 7 000 volunteers.
And when another group of volunteers from a local clinic in Ivory Park a township north of the city, began doing home visits to supply Aids patients with medicines they noticed the residents had no food. No problem - they developed the idea of a food garden, and a year later the Food and Trees for Africa project was born.
The project trains volunteers in permaculture gardening, and the clinic garden is thriving. There's an unexpected benefit as well - the volunteer gardeners are selling their produce and have opened a bank account to plow their savings back into further development of the project. It doesn't stop there - the patients are leaving their beds to plant their own permaculture gardens.
Health volunteers also responded to a call by Gauteng premier Mbhazima Shilowa in April to help out at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto, in the Letsema Health Volunteer Campaign Volunteers help out in office admin work, or keeping the hospital clean. Without hesitation, over 1 200 people turned up on the first day of the campaign.
Women in particular have shown extraordinary enterprise when it comes to volunteering their time and energy. Amelia Mgijima, a mother of two, has always dreamed of being a firefighter. So determined is she to fulfil this ambition that she has worked as a volunteer firefighter at the Orange Farm Fire Station for the past two years.
She is hopeful that one day she will be employed by the city's emergency management services as a firefighter. She says: "I don't want to do anything else. I want to save people. I want to help my community." She is just one of an estimated 500 volunteers who "work" for the emergency services, ever hopeful that they will be permanently employed and take that extra pride in what they are doing by drawing a salary.
And talking about fire stations, a disused station in Alexandra is used as the Bombani (Shangaan for "be proud") Shelter for Abused Women. Three unemployed women give of their labour and love to run the Shelter, counselling the women and at times men as well, and helping the women move back in with their partners, when that's their chosen course of action.
The volunteers don't only have to worry about the women but spend time raising funds for running the Shelter, and of course, like any volunteers, they would like to be paid for their efforts. They're hopeful that the Alexandra Renewal Project will enhance their working conditions too.
Another woman making a difference in people's often desperate lives is volunteer Marilyn Hanyane, former social worker and since 2000, co-ordinator of Lifeline in Dobsonville, Soweto. With a volunteer crew who often can't turn up to help because they don't have bus fare, Hanyane drives out to people who need counselling but don't have money to phone Lifeline. She says of the humble operation: "I'll admit that it has been tough, but it has also been very rewarding."
Volunteers have sprung into action in Hillbrow and Berea too. An energetic parks rejuvenation programme has been undertaken and to date 12 inner city parks have been given a facelift and restored to their former beauty, much to the enjoyment of the local community. And along with the facelift has come a troupe of park volunteers, keeping an eye on graffiti painters and other undesirables who might spoil the hard work that has gone into the project.
Michelle van Blerk, general manager of inner city parks, has plans to make the volunteers independent - she hopes to set them up with kiosks filled with goodies to sell to park goers, so that they can combine their monitoring tasks with making a living for themselves.
There's also park volunteers - called Park Ambassadors - in newly developed parks in Soweto, where there is 2 000 hectares of open green space.
But perhaps the best volunteers the city has produced were the 1 800 World Summit guides, always ready with a smile and demonstrating commitment and dedication beyond what was asked of them. Dressed in smart black tunics with Ndebele trim, they were excellent ambassadors for Johannesburg and the country.
Forty one-year-old Masibi summed it up: "It's been the best experience for me. I wear my uniform with such pride. Delegates have been queuing up to buy my uniform but it is priceless."
The President said volunteer to help your community … Johannesburgers didn't need to be asked twice.
