Soulparking

Thursday, 30 March 2006

As Jasmin and I crossed the parking lot after getting our usual Simply Asia fix, in the parking lot lights I saw a homeless guy wobbling in front of us.

Jasmin leaned into me.  “Shame. I know him.” 

Because Jasmin worked for a Muslim doctor in Bo-Kaap for eight years, there were few people she didn’t know.

“He was a teacher.  He taught my adopted brother and sister in Standard 3.”  Jasmin slowed down to let him get ahead.   “I used to go and pick them up and sit in the back of his class.  He was always their last class and he was amazing.  Full of life.  The kids loved him.  He was the school’s favorite teacher.”  She was silent for a moment.  “What could happen that he would now live on the streets?”

She went on to answer her own question.  “People at the doctor’s office said it was alcohol.”  

Whatever it was, something completely changed his life.

In everyone’s life, there is that one thing – one thing which epitomizes who you become or transform into.  What if you could take a handful of people and change the bad one thing and make it right?  This is the core belief of handfulofhope.org.

Handful Of Hope is the brainchild of Kelly Sons.  She was a writer on SoulParking from the very beginning and she lived through her bad one thing.   Actually it was a group of numerous bad things.  And once she created her own future and got back on her feet, she decided to create a charity organization that would help others do the same.   It took just one thing to give her hope.  And that – made all the difference. 

Handful Of Hope Charities has conceptually been around since 2003.  Kelly and I in the beginning focused on assisting single mothers who lost their children because they do not have the financial means to support or raise them.  This touched a nerve with me because I was taken away as a child from my parents. 

So Kelly would work with the mothers directly by buying them second hand clothing which was appropriate business attire.  She would then work on their resumes.  Help them receive computer and office skills.  And then would work with offices in and around the community to get them interviews.   Next after they got the job, she would assist them to legally gain custody of their children.

Kelly then began writing a book about female death row inmates.  And from writing this book, she was introduced to an organization that helps the children of death row females.    The purpose is to stop the vicious cycle and let these kids know they do not have to make the same mistakes their mothers made.

Jasmin and I began working in Africa to assist orphan girls. Both of our personal histories impelled us to help.  Most of the orphan girls become prostitutes or hooked on “took” or “crystal meth” as it is called in the States.    Currently, the organization we are hoping to assist is not desperate for money although they need it.  They are more in need of toiletries and school books for the girls to live a normal every day life.   When we visited the Phase I center (this is the phase where the girls come directly off the streets), little girls of all colors – not just black – but black, white, and coloured was there.  And the youngest girls of 6 and 7 sat by the windows calling men to come up to her.  I asked somebody about this – and one of the lady volunteers said, “Having sex with men to make money is all she knows.”

On our own, Jasmin and I also go out once every 2 to 3 months and give all our clothes away or buy new clothes to some one or a family who is in need.   Jasmin usually found out about them via her doctor’s office.

I am also personally paying for bursaries for two people a semester who want to better their lives by getting into film, photography, or digital technology.  Most charity organizations teach skills such as weaving and sewing – but I feel there is a gluttony of these types of jobs here in Africa.   But if you teach someone underprivileged who shows creative potential how to use the new technology, or use technology to tell their story – so the world can know – they can help more than just themselves – they can help the world.

I am also volunteering to teach basic camera and editing techniques to under privileged teenagers.  I am working with a couple of local church youth groups that reach out to the community.  These teenagers are getting involved with gangs and drugs – but instead I am encouraging them to fight their current situation by “documenting their lives” – by getting it out there for the world to see – they are no longer powerless.  They no longer have to lay down and die to the pressures.  They are powerful.  People can empathize and help.    

Just recently, I met and started working with a fledgling charity organization called “Wandering Star” which was initiated by Brenda Vos.   Her purpose is to tell teenagers they have choices and are not trapped by peer pressure to try drugs or have sex.  The second focus is to stop human trafficking of HIV orphans from Africa.  Children who are born to parents who die of AIDS end up disappearing into thin air.  These children then emerge as prostitutes in other African countries.  This is not just little girls but also little boys as well.

Lastly, an organization that is well known in the States but is having an uphill battle here in South Africa is SADD (South Africa Against Drunk Driving).  South Africa has an epidemic problem with drinking and driving.  Although the authorities talk tough, usually nothing is done about stopping what is going on.  Brenda personally lost her boyfriend to a drunk driver who run him down while he was crossing a street.  The lady who killed him was intoxicated four times over the legal limit.  And this person has not apologized nor has she been convicted of anything. 

Kelly, Brenda, Jasmin, and I know we cannot help everyone.  And the more you help – the more you know you are not doing enough.  But if you can help a “handful” and they  themselves later help a “handful” – then you are making progress.   This is what handfulofhope.org is all about.  Handfulofhope.org is a place that funnels money to organizations that we personally know or are working with to make a difference.  It’s not enough to just send money and cross your fingers that it is getting to the people in need.  I had to know that I was trying to make a difference.   That it was directly making an impact.

So the website is still under construction, but soon you will be able to read about the fruits of our labor.  You will be able to read the stories, see the documentaries, view the images of people who are becoming new again.  The children and single mothers on handfulofhope.org are the next generation of optimism.

So to all the fans and readers of SoulParking.com, between starting this charity, going to film school at night, and working my day job, it has been an utter “handful.”  So be patient with me because “soulparking is dead.”  I promise all of these things when they come together will make SoulParking greater than it was before.

And if I get my way, lives will change because of it.