Something that I’ve been trying to wrap my brain around for a while now is the immense number of men I see every morning sitting on street corners waiting for someone to hire them for a job. A day, a week or whatever, all they want is to work. Not to rob, steal, murder or rape. To work. Yet I’ve struggled to come up with a solution to this problem. How does a single person make a difference? I can’t hire every one of these men. In fact, I don’t have any work for them at all.
Yet it seems that there is an organisation that is trying to make a difference. Here’s the press release:
Consider for a moment what you’re able to buy with R120. Perhaps a new T-shirt to add to the many in your cupboard, or a light lunch and cappuccino in a trendy restaurant?
Now, consider what R120 might mean for someone who has not worked for a week and has nothing else in their wallet. It may buy his family’s groceries or cover the costs of a year’s pre-school education.
So why not make a change this Workers Day and create a job to celebrate it.
‘Make South Africa Work’ is a campaign initiated by Men on the Side of the Road (MSR) to raise awareness about the need to create jobs and to encourage people to seize the initiative.
“MSR have declared the month of May the ‘Make South Africa Work Month’. We want to increase awareness of the plight of unemployed people and more importantly, to suggest ways you and I can help create jobs,” said Peter Kratz, National Director of MSR.
With unemployment at critical levels the MSR campaign aims to facilitate the placement of skilled and semi skilled workers in part-time or full-time work.
“We want South Africans to realize that it is possible for them to create work. In the month of May we want those who can to create a job for a day, a week, a month, or even permanently. Short term jobs can be created by hiring a MSR member to sort out all those DIY chores you’ve been putting off since last year, like clipping your overgrown hedge, cleaning out your garage or giving that tatty old fence a coat of paint,” said Kratz.
Groups of friends could hire workers to help them clean up their street or local park. Working together we can all make South Africa Work.
Launching the awareness campaign on Workers Day, MSR members will be marching peacefully through the streets of Cape Town. On the mornings of 30 April and 1 May, a poster campaign will take place at MSR pick-up points around the country (see below). Workers and supporters of job creation will wear a MSR yellow ribbon armband to show their support.
MSR makes it easy for you to hire a worker with their organised pick-up points and database of skilled and recommended labourers at a minimum wage of R120 for eight hours of work.
Kratz said: “Why not create meaningful employment for someone, spend a R120 in a way that empowers them and helps you too.”
Call 0861 WORKER (0861 967537), email info@employmen.co.za or visit www.employMen.co.za for more info.
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