The origin of The Haven. In February 1975 a group of NICRO Social Workers were having their morning tea break in their offices in Harrington Street. One of the Social Workers was married to a doctor. This doctor the previous night was working in Casualty at Groote Schuur Hospital. The Social Worker was telling the other Social Workers that her husband and the other doctors on duty were puzzling over a man who had been found in Roeland Street and had grass stuffed down his throat. He was dying, was he dying from suffocation or from hunger?
The other Social Workers were listening to this story with growing shock and dismay. They were very distressed by what they heard.
Those were the days when a group of criminals were destroying the prettiest and most ancient part of Cape Town - District 6. Hundreds of people were being rendered homeless by this act of vandalism. People who lived in the back yards of the residents of District Six. People who had been given space in houses in District 6 but were not legal owners or tenants. All of these marginal residents were now homeless and living on the streets. Harrington Street was on the border of all this chaos.
These NICRO Social Workers were incensed and galvanised into action. They were determined to find out how someone could die around the corner from them in such terrible circumstances. They wanted to find out the size of the problem. They got out onto the streets with their questionnaires. The results were horrifying. Within a very small area they found hundreds of people clinging to the edges of District 6, bewildered, confused, malnourished and afraid. Living behind dustbins, in alleyways, under cars and in the entrances to shops.
These NICRO social workers were determined to make a difference. They wanted to alert Capetonians to this terrible tragedy. Some took a film on homelessness around the community halls of Cape Town, Mowbray, Wynberg, Sea Point etc to get support. Others starting looking for a building to shelter these refugees from District 6, others started negotiating with government for a licence.
The result of all this activity was the opening of the NICRO Night Shelter in Harrington St in January 1976. Two of these NICRO Social Workers used to attend a church service held in this very church every Friday at lunch time. Fr Roger Hickley was the parish priest of this church at the time and lived next door alone, in a large empty building which used to be a primary school and convent. Another victim of the Group Areas Act. The Social Workers would have a cup of tea with Fr Rodger after the service and keep him up to date with the NICRO Night Shelter campaign.
The Opening of The Haven Night Shelter
Within a short period of time Fr Roger Hickley and Sam Gross formed a partnership, launched the Haven Night Shelter and opened a Night Shelter next door.
Now, what is the thread that connects the NICRO Social Workers to Fr Rodger a Catholic priest to Sam Gross a Jewish lawyer? Indeed what is the thread that connects all of us together in this church to-day?
I believe it is the virtue of KINDNESS. Kindness to the stranger, the poor, the vulnerable in our communities, a practical sort of kindness, a kindness that says let’s “do something” simple, effective and long lasting.
Kindness has a poor reputation
Now ‘kindness’ has a poor reputation and the Art of Kindness is very underrated and is often linked with the word ‘good’, ‘do good’, ‘be good’. These words have a child like quality. We say to children sentences like “That wasn’t very kind” or “You must be kind to your sister”. Yet this is to underestimate the value and power of these words.
I believe that there is something deeply important about kindness and goodness which we frequently overlook. Stefan Einhorn a Swedish author, says “ A kind person carries within their consciousness a constant concern for their fellow human beings.....the kind person has realised that what we do to our fellows we also do for ourselves.”
The American Poet and Author Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote “It is one of the beautiful compensations of life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself”.
It’s time for a paradigm shift in the way we view ourselves as kind people and it comes to this. “Be kind to others and you will reap rewards for yourself”. Or as James Freeman Clarke put it “do good, and you will find that happiness will run after you”.
Kindness has the power to transform the world.
Wasi Mohammed the Executive Director of the Islamic Centre in Pittsburg spoke at a gathering to mourn the 11 Jewish souls recently murdered in their Synagogue. He announced that the Muslim community had raised $190 000 to contribute to the funerals and medical expenses of the victims. He offered the protection of the Muslim community at Jewish services by standing outside their synagogues.
It all starts with kindness. Kindness can change the world and Wasi Mohammed is proving that against all the odds.
The Haven reflects brilliantly the quality of kindness of the communities of the Western Cape. You have a proud record and I congratulate you Madam Chair and hope that in the years ahead the Haven will flourish and expand until there are no more homeless people living rough on the streets of our towns and villages.
One last thought. Perhaps that poor man who died in agony in Roeland St while eating the grass on the side of the road did not die in vain. His death set in motion a chain of events which brings us here to-day and perhaps he should be considered the true founder of the Haven Night Shelter movement in the Western Cape. A movement for the homeless, started by a homeless man, sounds good to me. Thank you.
Speech delivered by Mr Peter Templeton at the Haven AGM 2018.