Support systems: A home for the homeless

Shelter set up by local philanthropists serves as a haven for 80 people.

RAHIM YAR KHAN:

A homeless shelter in the district has been providing shelter, clothes, schooling and skills training to over 80 people in the district.

According to Sadiqabad Chak 359-BT residents, several philanthropists in the district pooled their resources to purchase four 5-marla houses in a street and converted them into a homeless shelter. “The shelter is an improvisation. Two of the houses are reserved for families while the other two house men and women separately. Children are housed with the women,” said one of the project’s founders Naseem Ilmas. “We don’t belong to any NGO or political group. There are six families who simply wanted to help the hundreds of homeless people in the district so we decided to pool our money together,” she said.

“I cook meals for the houses with a team of four other cooks. We serve over 80 people in the four homes three meals a day and we are responsible for ensuring everyone is fed,” said cook Ashraf. “After people in the area came to hear about this facility many have begun contributing to the cause. There is a tandoor that provides us with free rotis and a local NGO that has distributed free charpoys and quilts,” he said.

Residents of the facility said that they considered it a godsend. “I had no where to go and I couldn’t afford to even build a home but someone came and told me I would find shelter here and now I am getting daily contracting jobs,” said Shaukat, who lives at the centre with his wife and four children.

“The goal is to rehabilitate these people. We knew we couldn’t simply give them shelter and not encourage them to work so we come and teach the women how to cook, clean and sew. There are Quran classes and a dars every Friday afternoon,” Nasreen said.

Most of the contributors to the homeless shelter said that they would prefer to remain anonymous and that they had rejected government aid on several occasions. “We don’t want to involve NGOs or the government. The only recent undertaking in this regard was that we have approached a government school official to register all the children at the shelter in school,” said another volunteer at the centre, Abdullah Kamal.

“This place offers us second chances. Many of the inmates were drug addicts and others lived on the street. Now we all have a place to start afresh. We have food, clothing and shelter and above all a chance to redeem ourselves,” said inmate Lal Safdar, 15. “The shelter has a team of helpers who cook for us and also help with monitoring those who are being weaned off drugs,” said Safdar.

“Many of the people we have found were drug addicts and we spoke to a drug rehabilitation clinic in this regard. The problem is that inmates at those facilities know they will not have a place to go after they are discharged but that is not the case here,” said Naseem. “We now have people from the drug centre come in and show us how to deal with detoxing patients. A lady health worker visits on a weekly basis and we have a driver and van at all times,” she added.

The organizers said that they were considering building other similar facilities in other districts. “We want to approach other civilians who want to give alms and encourage them to start something like this in other districts,” Naseem said. “It is incredibly rewarding to give people a second chance at improving their lives.

Workers at the centre said that usually people only ended up staying at the shelter for three or four months. “They know they are welcome to stay for as long as they wish but all it takes for them to get back on their feet is a little support. We help the men find employment and the women acquire skills that would allow them to earn from home. We help place the kids in school and then they have a place to start over from,” Abdullah said.

“When I came here I had been a heroin addict for four years. One day a van stopped and a man approached me and asked if I wanted to change my life. He said he would feed me. When I came here three years ago I didn’t know I would end up detoxing, finding a job and eventually running the place,” said administrator for the shelter Waleed Amjad.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 25^th, 2011.