Fire at Ons Plek in South Africa

by Global Ministries | published on Oct 10, 2014

Ons Plek, the only intake shelter for girls in Cape Town offers hope to homeless girls who end up on the streets. They leave home to escape physical abuse and neglect or have been sent away as their families can’t support them. We provide accommodation, counselling and education and undertake to reunite the girls with their families.

On Friday, the 5th June Ons Plek was gutted by a fire.

As a result, due to the building being uninhabitable, all the girls and staff have moved to their second phase home in Woodstock. This is a temporary arrangement while the Ons Plek building is being restored. Girls are sleeping in the lounge and the dining room. Staff are crowded into the homework and computer rooms. Queues form daily for the showers and toilets and staff queue impatiently for the single phone.

To the community of Ons Plek Projects supporters who help us in so many different ways I want to share with you in a way which goes beyond the normal factual report. As many of you know, this is not the first fire at Ons Plek.

I was phoned at approximately 6.15am by the childcare worker who shouted that “the house is burning down”. As I dressed quickly, I said to my family “I am not going on with this work. Another fire, it’s too much”. I was furious, as were all the staff on hearing the news. The first thought in our minds was that it was started by someone smoking. That is apparently what many members of the public think because that’s the first question we are asked about the fire.

We are very strict with smoking. While we strongly feel that children should not smoke, some older girls are already habitual smokers when they come to Ons Plek The children are not allowed to smoke indoors. If found smoking we explain to them that smoking can cause fires. If the house burns down the accommodation may be a community hall if they are lucky. Therefore the disciplinary consequences for smokers is that they sleep downstairs on a mattress and have only two changes of clothing for the week.

After any event at Ons Plek, major or minor, stories usually surface about what happened. What has surfaced, so far, is that one girl called the childcare worker when she saw the fire, the childcare worker checked and found the fire burning across the exit. She ran for the keys and drove the children out the gate under the flames. No one was hurt.

The assessor later showed us where the fire started. The electrical power supply enters the house there, and there was also a bed in the area. So while it is possible that the cause is electrical, it is also possible someone was smoking. The cause is open to speculation. Smoking is usually regarded as a ‘normal misdeed’ children commit. One of those things they experiment with. Whether this fire was due to smoking or not the possibility of smoking causing a fire is always there, in every place where people congregate, old age homes, every hospital and every children’s home. Nobody can stop an adult or child smoking all of the time.

ONS PLEK PROJECTS

The question for some of the staff and perhaps for some of you is, is it worth starting again. We sometimes feel that we take four steps forward and five backwards in our everyday work. This is because the girls’ behaviour is often very unwise and self destructive. Not only are they immature teenagers, their judgement is influenced by huge gaps in their life experiences and compounded by abusive experiences. The circumstances of their lives have contributed to them having these characteristics. These characteristics are a reason they need help. The realities of working with these children is that their behaviour will not always be in the best interest of those working with them as it is often not even in their own best interest. On occasion their behaviour may be downright dangerous for staff. In making a decision to continue our work we also must remember the 95% of girls who do use the opportunity to change their lives. The decision is personal for each of us. One staff member has resigned as a result of the fire but the choice of everyone else is to continue our work.

Many religious teachings say that we are to give thanks under all circumstances. At a time like this that is hard to do. At Ons Plek many of the staff believe God can bring good things from bad things. Along with our sadness, our anger at this setback, our feelings of waste, our worry about how the fire started, our fears that this can happen again, the fact that God cares for the poorest of the poor when no one else does and that Ons Plek is God’s project is what we have to hold onto at this stage. And trust for God’s guidance about the way forward.

We have always relied on the valuable support of our donors, friends and family, who by their prayers and loyal commitment, have aided us in continuing, over the years, with the valuable ‘work’ that we do with the young girls placed in our care.

Especially at a time like this, we value your prayers, love and concern. If you feel, that you would like to assist us we would be most grateful for any financial support. As a result of the fire, we have incurred additional costs which need to be met.

While financial donations are, therefore, the most versatile and don’t require storage space we have managed to locate limited storage space. Due to the fact that we are limited to storage space, we would like to try and be as practical as possible with regards to requesting and receiving donations.

Thank you again for your understanding and continued support.

Pam Jackson
Ons Plek

Donations
To make an online gift to this project click here and select South Africa – Ons Plek from the designation list. To make a gift by check to this project click here.