Who Knew My Dream Job is in South Africa?

For three days, as a part of my trip, I had the opportunity to job shadow at a South African organization.  The organization I chose was Khulisa - Streetscapes, and it couldn't have been a more perfect location for me.












Streetscapes is an organization that helps chronically homeless adults by teaching them how to grow produce and providing them with a stipend.  Some of Streetscapes beneficiaries also clean the streets in front of buildings in the business district and empty the trash, services that the businesses pay Streetscapes for.  The proceeds from the street cleaning and the sale of vegetables not only go towards paying the beneficiaries, but they also enable the program to continue to run.  There are two gardens within Cape Town, as well as a farm about 20 minutes away in Kuils River.


The farm at Kuils River is a place where the beneficiaries who struggled with the Cape Town programs can go to have a better chance of success.  The current beneficiaries there, in addition to having experienced homelessness, also often experienced substance abuse.  Being away from their triggers and their suppliers assists them with their sobriety, although they experience occasional relapses like many who are in recovery from substance use.  Fortunately relapse does not automatically result in expulsion from the program, so as long as the beneficiaries are willing to receive treatment and follow treatment recommendations, they are able to continue being in the program and living and working on the farm.

A few of the beneficiaries were generous enough to allow me to photograph them and their hard work, and I had a wonderful conversation with a few of them where they told me their life stories and how they came to live at Kuils River.

I love the entire operating concept of Streetscapes.  I love that they help people who have often struggled with homelessness for years learn a skill that will help them earn money and find a less stigmatizing place in society.  The program isn't without its challenges, but I greatly enjoyed listening to the pride the beneficiaries showed in the work they're doing and the produce they are growing.

The main challenges with the Streetscapes beneficiaries are largely social.  Many of the beneficiaries have experienced homelessness for so long that their primary operating mode is survival.  They've spent many years doing whatever was necessary to make sure that their needs were met; as such, it is difficult for them to work and live with other people.  There are a lot of issues with jealousy, unnecessary competition, and general sniping at each other.  A lot of these issues are simply because the beneficiaries have only had to be concerned with themselves and their survival so they don't have a great deal of social skills or experience having to coexist and collaborate with others.

My fondest wish would be to work at Kuils River.  Even though I have a few months until I complete my MSW, all of my work experience makes me feel I could really be an asset to this organization.  I would love to be a live-in social worker on the farm, both because of my gardening experience and because I would love to teach coping and social skills groups and help the beneficiaries eventually move from survival mode into a more cooperative existence.  I think it would are such a unique opportunity to work with the beneficiaries to create policies and procedures for the farm as well as working rules.  I also would love to facilitate team-building exercises with the beneficiaries in hopes of eventually decreasing some of the interpersonal conflicts.  Unfortunately, working with Streetscapes is not straightforward or easy.  The unemployment rate in South Africa is very high, 27%, which means hiring a foreigner to do a job that a South African person could be doing is potentially impossible.  I haven't given up, I genuinely want to work with this program and I think I could learn a lot working with this population.  In addition I would love to learn more about the organizational structure of the program and whether it is a program I could potentially replicate here in the U.S.  It may take a miracle, but I'm hopeful that a way will be made for me to return to South Africa and work at Kuils River.

Spending three days with Streetscapes has inspired me so much!  It has been wonderful seeing that an organization is using gardening to combat homelessness.  It was truly seeing a dream in practice and I want so very much to learn more.  I'm thankful for Jesse and Babalwa, the director and supervisor of the programs, and getting to spend time in the wilderness with them and then more time during the job shadowing.  They were both an absolute pleasure to get to know, and I hope to see them again soon and work with them.

The trip is coming to a close much more quickly than I'd like.  I'm not ready to go yet!  Thankfully there are still a few more days, so I'm going to enjoy them!

Camielle