The Straatwerk ministry began by ministering to people who were destitute and desperate (broken), operating mainly as an advice ministry. The advice was two pronged, focusing on:
-How to live an effective and responsible life in terms of relationships (with God and with fellow human beings), and
-How to live an effective and responsible life in terms of daily activities (relating to material needs).
Through the years, it became apparent that it was not only necessary to offer the right advice. It was essential for people to be provided with opportunities to put this advice into practice. While learning the skills relating to a responsible and productive life, broken individuals still needed to cover their material needs.
They needed to earn some sort of income through the process of being spiritually trained and sustained.
OPHELP started with a small opportunity afforded to Straatwerk by the Central City Improvement District (CCID) to clean the Grand Parade at odd hours over the weekend when the City’s Cleansing Department was not operational. A donation from a kind donor, as well as from the Cape Peninsula Reformed Congregation, provided further opportunities.
The CCID was happy with the services rendered. Whenever they needed extra help, Straatwerk teams were able to provide it. Other clients noticed this and started making use of the cleaning services. In this way a habilitation* programme managed to render good cleansing services, operating on pure business principles.
Habilitation: the process of learning or improving skills and functional abilities that a person has not yet developed or is not developing normally.
Habilitation helps a person learn a new skill or function, whereas rehabilitation helps someone regain a skill they previously possessed.
Apart from the post of the OPHELP Project Manager, appointed and paid by Straatwerk, all of the OPHELP activities are financially self-sustained.
Except for the OPHELP Project Manager and the OPHELP Technical Services Manager, each one of the current OPHELP staff members, on any level, started their journey to the position as a homeless person, participating just like any other participant.
Currently, OPHELP has 5 contracted General Administrative staff members, 4 contracted Operational staff members, about 4 Operational Supervisors, about 15 trained foremen, all of these managing the daily OPHELP General Services deployments, where, on average, there are about 20 different teams out on shift, daily. In wintertime it might be less per day. In summertime it is far more per day.
Yearly, apart from the mentioned contracted staff, an estimated 650 consistent or less consistent individuals take part, in rotation, in these OPHELP General Services shifts. These participants are organised in about 6 stable teams and about another 6 evolving teams in the School of Life programme.
OPHELP aims to welcome people in desperate situations into a caring fellowship of believers. To invite them to become vibrant followers of Christ and guide them toward a life of purpose.
OPHELP is a ‘School of Life’.
Ophelp Projekte are not about creating jobs. It is about giving people who are not yet able to be responsible and productive a chance to earn cash through hard and honest work, instead of begging or committing other crimes.
Participants learn important life skills while helping clean streets and improve communities, removing not just rubbish, but also obstacles in their own lives and the lives of others around them.
The vision is to create:
-Teams that grow into economically stable households,
-A network of employable individuals, and
-A community where people at every stage, unemployable, employable, and empowered, support one another in living free, productive, and faith-filled lives.
Ephesians 4:28, “He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need.”
The School of Life consists of several levels to help participants grow step by step. All its participants and all its staff members come from a life on the streets or sheer desperation. The participants are organised into teams that help each other to survive and look after each other’s interests
Participants begin by learning basic life and work skills to get ready for the next steps. They get coaching and guidance from experienced team members, intended to build a supportive circle of friends.
They participate in unskilled work shifts to practice teamwork and learn to follow guidance from a team leader. Typical jobs include picking up litter, cleaning at events, and helping guard parked cars at events.
Participants receive coaching and guidance to build a team on a mission that can also care for the most vulnerable. Each team is encouraged to adopt a completely helpless person from the street and incorporate that person into their plan for the future. Such a person is called a protégé.
These teams do unskilled work shifts to practice providing quality service. Their work carries more responsibility than that of the Starter Teams.
Participants receive coaching to build a team that delivers contracted services like their own small business. The goal is to earn enough income to make life work for them and to establish a loving and caring home.
OPHELP Protégé Fund
The fund is made up of contributions from OPHELP participants and teams.
It aims to help teams cover the special needs of their protégé, where the team’s financial capacity proves insufficient.
OPHELP Training Fund
This fund is supported and maintained by contributions from OPHELP participants.
It is intended to help participants pay for accredited training and qualifications to run their team’s business successfully.
Technical Services
Technical Services is one of many teams at OPHELP. Unlike the other teams, this one uses special technical skills and tools and requires additional training.
Technical Services is split into Road Maintenance Teams and Technical Teams.
These are permanent teams that have graduated from Technical Teams. They help the CCID and other Improvement Districts with city maintenance tasks.
Typical work includes repairing potholes, paving, curbstones, and road signs. Installing, repairing, or removing benches and bollards. Installing rainwater channels and replacing drain covers. Securing public bins and exposed electrical wiring. Painting road markings for parking, no-parking zones, and fire hydrants.
These teams are flexible, with members and tasks rotating regularly. Their tasks include removing graffiti and illegal posters. Cleaning municipal and stormwater drains. Maintaining cigarette bins. Gardening, weed removal, weed spraying, and setting rodent traps. Trimming trees and maintaining tree wells.
CCID (Central City Improvement District) uses the services of these Technical Services to achieve its urban management objectives.
Our OPHELP Depot is located at 141 Castle Street, Bo-Kaap, and is the center of the following operations:
Offers overnight sleeping facilities for teams working late or night shifts, as well as for emergencies when needed.
A bath house service, free of charge for the vulnerable and all who want to make use of it.
The OPHELP teams are served by a team for handicapped participants called the Jesus Saves Daily Team. This team consists of about 20 handicapped people, who daily do the laundry of all the uniforms worn by die OPHELP General Services shift deployments.
All equipment used by the teams are kept, issued, and returned to the depot before and after each shift. It is also the center for hosting team meetings.
OPHELP defines homelessness as the absence of a home where there is love and care. A true home provides material, emotional, relational, and economic education and care. Beth Shalom is our first communal household – a place to call home.
Residents from all walks of life are welcomed and taught how to share household costs, responsibilities, and care for one another.
With the rising cost of living, the Beth Shalom household decided to practice what we preach to find ways to earn extra income. We chose to host paying guests for bed and breakfast and listed our home on Airbnb.
Welcoming strangers is, after all, part of living out our faith in Jesus.