Access DENIED
How resources and accessibility to it remains stagnant
I have long opined my frustration with the way resources are distributed to people in need.
It has never been a lack of information, but rather the way the information is disseminated.
The latter is a massive stumbling block in those resources reaching those it was intended for.
Government, agencies adjacent to government including NGO’s have all these noble causes, put in print on mounds of documents. Project scopes are made, meetings upon meetings. All for nought, when these services and goods are advertised in spaces not occupied by the very people it is intended for.
Unless you live near the city centre, you won’t see the numerous civic notices all over the CBD; and getting into town from the township areas is not easy. People need to take more than one mode of transport, and if they are coming into town it’s for a specific purpose. People are not coming to town for leisure and looking at every flyer that’s posted on walls.
I can hear mutterings of, “ok but information is online”. Ok fine.
Are you aware that using social media and so on is an elite activity, and puts you in the top 1 percent of the nation? Are you aware that people are not aware they can get rebates and assistance with healthcare, education, employment, and a myriad of other things? Why? Because Access to the access is denied. From exorbitant data costs, to the way the municipality and the rest of local government uses advertising.
A widely read and affordable publication like the Daily Voice is being under-utilised.
Lower income families shop at specific chain stores, huge print ads can be put up here too. SASSA offices and local health clinics where people collect their meds too. Canvassing? Why has this disappeared? School leavers can earn pocket money by walking and working in groups of ten or more and targeting places like clinics and such to inform people of things that really only get put online.
Go to the people. Come to these spaces. Inform, empower, and ASSIST.
Stop denying access by making the very access to assistance an anchor.