BEGGING is a survival instinct for those who are trying to help themselves, said Dr Raymond Perrier, the director of the Denis Hurley Centre Trust.

He said there were many reasons why people turned to begging, the most common being the lack of jobs in the country.

“Young men come to the city looking for work. There is a very high unemployment rate and many of them end up begging as a way of surviving. They live in the hope that if they stay in the city, they will be more likely to find some work.

“If people do not give money to beggars, they could resort to theft instead to survive or feed themselves,” said Perrier.

He said that begging had become a family ‘activity’ especially in hostile environments.

“Very few of the children who beg are actually living on their own. Instead, they are sent by their mothers to beg since they are harder to refuse. The increase in poverty in the city has led to more mothers resorting to this tactic.

“A lot of people give to beggars and a lot are hostile. Most just ignore the beggars and pretend they cannot see them. But giving to beggars does not necessarily always help. It could fuel a drug habit and it encourages people to beg. Often we give to beggars not because we think it is good for them but because it makes us feel better,” said Perrier.

However, Perrier emphasised that one should never feel bad and give begging children money.

“Never give to children. This encourages people to use their children as 'bait'. Always greet a beggar and treat them as a human being, whether you give them money or not. The decision on whether or not you give money should be based on what you think is good for the beggar, not on what makes you feel better,” he said.

He believes that the government should be more involved in helping beggars.

“The government should create more work and more training opportunities both in the city but also in rural KZN which was where many homeless people come from. The government should not treat beggars like litter to be cleared off the street. They are citizens with the same rights as anyone else,” said Perrier.

He insisted that we needed to help empower beggars to be better which is what the Denis Hurley Centre Trust always aims to do.

“We feed people so they do not need to beg to get food. We provided 175,000 meals last year and we provided rehabilitation programmes and family reunification. Our most effective strategy was our Street Lit programme which turned homeless people into entrepreneurs selling books.

“The biggest issue in society when it comes to beggars is the inability to see them as human beings. There is no such thing as a beggar, but rather there are people who beg.

“Whether we give to them or do not give to them is usually because we are defining the person by the fact that they are begging, not by the fact that they are human and enjoy the same rights as all other humans,” said Perrier.

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