peter Story
Peter explaining his desperate situation.: NSJ Group 1
PETER lives in Meadowlands Zone 1 in Soweto outside Johannesburg. He has a wife and three children, one of whom is still at pre-school. He is unemployed but everyday he is expected to provide food for his family and pay essentials as may be required from time to time. The situation has become a daily struggle which on some days bears little fruit but on others nothing entirely making his journey home at the end of the day one filled with disgrace as he has to put up with a household that will go to bed hungry. Peter says everyday when he leaves the house he has no clue which direction of the town to head for and whether he will return home with anything to feed his family. Desperately he has found Flora Centre in
Peter lost his job in 1980 when his employers relocated to another place. He said things were tough in the 80s, but far better than today’s - a statement he kept repeating punctuated by “things are bad” throughout the interview. Ben finds the situation he is in as nothing more dehumanizing in the world because it affects the loss of one’s dignity. He says daily he prays that it will change and someone will offer him a job. He believes that will restore his dignity. He said the most devaluing situation is that noone cares to understand the pain and humiliation this brings to them as they are often painted with the same brush and label or treat them as lunatics.
He said while he feels society is grossly cruel to their situation he can understand why those in positions to change things choose not to do so because unless one has been exposed to their situation it would be hard to understand the physical and psychological pain and wound to their loss of dignity. Peter said to wake up every morning and walk several kilometers to beg and dig into rubbish bins for survival is the last thing a man could do.
“A man would never just give his dignity away,” he said, fighting a flood of tears. He added: “You resort to begging and scavenging when everything else has failed.” in-spite of all the unbearable hardships Peter is subjected to he would never go any any other route but beg and scavenge compared to stealing and mugging people.
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