A new campaign launched by the Cape Town Central City Improvement District (CCID) combines two key messages on how to stay safe on the streets, particularly in the face of aggressive begging, while still showing you care about those less fortunate.
Says Tasso Evangelinos, chief operating officer of the CCID: “In 2008, the CCID launched its GIVE RESPONSIBLY campaign to encourage people who cared about those living on the streets – and as an alternative to giving directly on the street – to give to the organisations that offered programmes towards developing the potential of a better life. There are over 20 registered NGOs alone that the CCID works with on a regular basis, all of whom support the GIVE RESPONSIBLY message as being about giving a hand up rather than a hand out.”
Among these NGOs are organisations such as The Homestead and Ons Plek, which work as shelters in turn for male and female street children, and Straatwerk and The Carpenter’s Shop – both of which are involved with the rehabilitation of adult street people as well as the provision of skills training.
“However,” says Evangelinos, “due to the economic downturn and the attraction of downtowns as affluent areas, the type of begging that is now being experienced in many areas including the Cape Town CBD is becoming more aggressive and, to many members of the public, even seen as threatening and intimidating.
“We are thus also seeing more direct handouts on the streets. What many members of the public do not realise is that money is often not used for the basics of food, shelter and clothing but used instead to support serious drug habits such as heroin and tik addictions. And anything given on the street can be used as currency, so even when someone asks for something other than money, this may be another way of obtaining some sort of ‘goods’ to sell for cash.”
With the need to make the message stronger towards not giving directly on the street and in response to an “ask” from many of its Central City stakeholders, the CCID has developed the “You can say no to begging” campaign, which outlines in detail not only how to GIVE RESPONSIBLY, but also provides the public with important information on how to stay safe should they feel threatened.
Within the Cape Town CBD, we ask every one of our stakeholders to put our 24/7 hotline number (082 415 7127) into their phones. This is connected around the clock to our call centre and our response units. Plus we have 70 Public Safety Officers (PSOs) who patrol our streets at all hours. The new campaign assists the public in how to recognise our uniform and encourages anyone who feels uncomfortable because of a situation they have encountered on the street to ask a CCID PSO to accompany them out of that situation.
The campaign is currently being rolled out to eateries around the CBD, to be followed by retailers and other establishments, and combines a brochure with a table talker as well as a window decal.
The table talker provides basic information on how to stay safe, and introduces the campaign (as does the decal), while the brochure elaborates on the safety message as well as providing information on the GIVE RESPONSIBLY campaign: this means everything from our SMS line (SMS ‘Give’ to 38088 to donate R10 to a relevant NGO) to information on the partner NGOs with which we work, and who are always looking for assistance from the public in order to provide the vital services with which they are involved.
For more information on the “You can say no to begging” campaign, please email aziza@capetownccid.org or call 021 286 0830.