On 22 September 2011 the residents of Schubartpark were evacuated after their protest became violent and City of Tshwane officials had to step in to stabilize the situation. The immediate result: The homeless population of Tshwane doubled within a matter of hours. That evening PEN opened its hall to the community and for the next couple of days between 140 and 180 women and children were sheltered every night. Simultaneously Tshwane Leadership Foundation opened their community hall in Salvokop to ±70 men. Because of the need for even more shelter, we approached the Dutch Reformed Church Pretoria and they graciously provided their church hall in Arcadia. The facility at Bosman Street unfortunately had to be closed down on the 26th of September due to building alterations to the hall.
This opened up a new and truly remarkable chapter in the story. Echo Youth Development, who helped to manage the Arcadia shelter from the moment we opened its doors, offered to stick it out until every last woman and child there were helped with a place to stay. These young people did a wonderful job and created a loving community of God’s people around the women and children. They also took responsibility to seek accommodation or a loving home for mothers and their children. Churches all throughout Tshwane came and stood alongside us during this time and literally showered us with support in all sorts of ways. Someone bought a hundred mattresses. Others provided baby necessities. Still others, provided food. A number of Christian families took in a woman and child into their homes. Churches provided loving hands to help during supper times. It was such a wonderful experience to see how God’s people united during this crisis and worked effortlessly to care for these women and children.
The good news is that as of today every single woman and child have been helped to find a place to stay. We honour every home, every church and every individual that made this possible through their personal effort or financial contribution to our disaster and relocation fund. This means in effect that we are able to close our emergency shelter in Arcadia
The bad news is that not everyone is helped as of yet. Homelessness is still a very big issue in our city. Our involvement in Arcadia also highlighted a number of issues that the church can and should be involved in on a much bigger scale - prostitution, job creation, health and education, to name but a few. Hopefully, we will be able to address some of these issues and with the support we now know we have, it will be possible to tackle these issues one by one.
God put the responsibility to be involved with the people of Schubartpark on our shoulders. We have won a battle, but the war against the “powers and principalities” is stronger than ever.
Please keep on praying for us in order to align ourselves with the vision that God has for his city.

To Him be the glory!