Unemployed are desperate
In a letter to the George Herald, Ria Olivier, the administrator of a local job finder Facebook page, says the desperation of people looking for work is reflected on Facebook.
She says it is heartbreaking to hear how applicants, who go to a lot of trouble and expense to prepare their CVs, never receive a response from the companies advertising jobs. A job seeker who has been trying in vain to find a job for the past eight months, says it looks as if some companies are advertising jobs that do not exist.
A young man with a bachelor’s degree, who has been applying for jobs for the past year says: “The current job market in George either calls for people with many years of experience to get a job providing a salary that is remotely ‘comfortable’, or you must settle for extremely mundane, unimaginative and low-paying work. I understand that a person must start somewhere, but a degreed student with a plethora of good skills shouldn’t have to be without work for this long.”
Another job seeker complains that if applicants are better qualified than the manager, the person is seen as a threat. Another says: “On numerous occasions I have found that a position is placed in the George Herald on a Thursday only to find out it was already filled on the Tuesday. So why advertise?”
Working together
Meanwhile, two charity projects that assist the needy have taken hands thanks to an article published in the George Herald last week.
The newly established George Training Centre for the Unemployed, initiated by Jenni Bouwer, was featured in the article Project for unemployed takes flight. Jolindy Dreyer, the driving force behind Heavenly Haven, a charity that has been running for the past 12 years, immediately contacted Bouwer.
The two found that they share a common vision and now they also share the premises in Marklaan where the training centre has been granted three months’ rent-free stay by Bes Bezuidenhout.
Heavenly Haven assists up to 60 poor families and helps the unemployed to generate a small income by teaching them skills and marketing their crafts through the Pink Tree Market. This is also Bouwer’s aim with the George Training Centre for the Unemployed.
Dreyer, who is setting up a website where the unemployed’s crafts can be marketed, says they encounter a shocking number of unemployed people living in tents in the forest. They recently found a crestfallen couple one evening sitting in their car, not knowing where to go. Someone offered them a place for the night, but the next evening they were on the street again.
Dreyer is now also looking for a large storage building to create separate areas for people to sleep or a big house with a large plot where some tents or caravans can be put up.
ARTICLE: ALIDA DE BEER, GEORGE HERALD JOURNALIST
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Source: George Herald