OBSID - New intern tackles social issues

The Observatory Improvement District (OBSID) social development team has recently grown as Tamryn Klaasens joins field worker Kenneth Roman.

Tamryn is a graduate of the Chrysalis Academy youth programme and is currently enrolled in an auxiliary social work course, which starts in January.

She will be assisting Kenneth and the OBSID’s admin team until her course starts. She will continue her internship at the OBSID next year July, to complete her practical component of her course.

Kenneth said that Tamryn is the first intern the OBSID has enlisted with a specific focus on social issues.

He said he is excited to see the internship be successful so that they can use Tamryn’s work as a foundation to build a more permanent social issues internship programme at the OBSID.

In the few weeks she has been with the OBSID, Tamryn has already assisted Kenneth in profiling homeless people in the area, updating the database and placing homeless people in shelters.

Tamryn said she helped place someone in the Haven shelter in Green Point, an experience she found humbling.

“As young people we take things for granted. Knowing that a person had everything once and then came down the ladder and now they have to start over by going to a shelter,” she said.

She added that seeing people find their feet and having access to food and a bed is “an amazing experience”. Kenneth said Tamryn will also be supervising the homeless people who are a part of the Working Wednesday initiative by Ferdinando’s Pizzeria.

He believes that many homeless people in the area will be a lot more open to receiving help with Tamryn now part of the team.

“Some of them feel because of failures in the past, they don’t have the courage to approach them again. A new person would bring new hope,” he said.

Besides being hand on with assisting the homeless, Tamryn’s duties also include compiling information booklets for homeless people seeking help, logging and tracking City C3 Notifications, documenting public safety incidents and data capturing.

Tamryn said: “I have this passion to work with other people because I had the opportunity to make a change in my life and a lot of people don’t have that opportunity to make that change.”

She aims to make a change in at least one person’s life.