In celebrating Women’s Month, the CCID spoke to female leaders in government, business and civic society in the Central City. We published some of their comments in the Winter 2016 issue of City Views. Here is a Q&A with Janice Sparg, coordinator of the Western Cape Street Children's Forum. Stay tuned throughout August to meet more wonder women of the Cape Town CBD.
What brought you to the CBD in the first place?
I'm a devoted Capetonian, from birth, and have always loved going to “town”. My work has brought me to the CBD since 2010, when I worked for a refugee organisation running a place of safety for foreign teenage boys who had lived under the bridges. In 2013, joining the Western Cape Street Children's Forum (WCSCF), my work became more focused on the children living, working and begging on the streets and the people and organisations who care for them. This is when I started meeting the people who work in town, all the many roleplayers who care so much.
How long have you been doing the kind of work you do and why do you do it?
I started working with street kids when I was 18, in my first year out of school. I volunteered in my gap year at Beth Uriel in Salt River.
After my marriage ended, and having been a stay-at-home mom for eight years, I started working again, managing a shelter for street children in East London. I finished my social work degree and have not looked back. Street children have always been on my heart, maybe because their presence on the street is so incongruous and makes no sense to me! It is a situation that has to change and I think that’s a good use of my time, energy and passion.
I was reminded recently about a book I read at 17 that truly inspired me. It was called Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger. I don't think I was ever the same!
What is the most challenging part of what you do?
I think meeting people who can only see the problems and complain about them, or keep saying why something won’t work, instead of solving a problem. I am an eternal optimist, ever hopeful, and am practical. I like to find practical solutions. I also get irritated by those who won’t work together with others, won’t share or communicate. We can't solve our problems optimally alone – we need each other.
What is it about the Cape Town CBD that you enjoy?
Oh, it’s beauty! I think people are happy to live amid such natural beauty. I feel a special thrill every time I drive around the mountain into the CBD. I think in the last decade people have become prouder and more careful to protect and care for our city. But we must also share it, and not be snobs. We must make space for all in the CBD – find the gem inside those we presently can't relate to.
Outside of your work environment, what is your favourite spot in the CBD?
I have always loved the cobblestones and the vibe of Greenmarket Square and Church Street. Every time you walk down a new road, you find a new treasure (shop or coffee shop or bike shop) that has been especially developed and made special by some creative person. But then there are so many gems – City Hall, Long Street, The Company’s Garden and the Iziko South African Museum – all so interesting and different.
What has been your best time in the CBD?
I love meeting people, so my favourite times in the CBD have been when I have spent time with the awesome people I’ve met through work. For example, successfully assisting refugees at Barrack Street Home Affairs; meetings with the cops at Central SAPS; working with those gems of fieldworkers from the CCID; creative shows at night in The Company’s Garden; month in and month out, our WCSCF meetings at the Salesian Institute with an ever changing group of caring, amazing, committed NGO roleplayers; having our proposals heard and accepted by the Department of Social Development HOD in Queen Victoria Street and realising we can make a difference; supper at Eastern Food Bazaar; and just many great world-changing conversations with individuals at the cosy coffee shops in town. I love my work – I am privileged to know the people of Cape Town, and to be one of them.
Western Cape Street Children's Forum
www.wcscf.co.za
Janice is pictured above with CCID Social Development fieldworker Headman Siralarala.