A Song of Hope - Claire Mobey (Official Music Video)
Premiering at 0:00 on the morning of the 21st of March 2022, in celebration of our South African Human Rights Day
In March 2020, Like many South Africans, I found myself on the edge of one of Cape Town's coldest winters in history: unemployed, frightened of a global pandemic and full of anger and self-pity as our civil liberties and freedoms we'd come to appreciate as normal, came to a total halt due to the devastation wrought by Covid-19.
Matthew and I on our 1st walk after the hardest lockdown was lightened to allow South Africans a very strictly enforced and monitored 2 hours of walking time between 6am and 8am.
I'm sure many of us can feel ironically unified, especially in that global period, in feeling trapped and alone.
It really did feel like the end of the world.
My Mom on shift in full Covid PPE
My Mom is a 70-year-old Nurse who specializes in Frail Care and care of the elderly. Due to the nature of her work and her own vulnerabilities, I was able to get a permit to drive her from Table View to her workplace in Mouille Point, which honestly saved what little of my sanity was left.
The 1st two months of lockdown were obviously, due to their harshness, the hardest, but as the restrictions were slowly lifted, so was the veil from my eyes.
Images of my precious son @Matthew-Williams, who accompanied me on every single one of these walks
As I took my then 8 year old son for our 1st walk in public in more than 60 days, I saw what Covid had really left in its wake.
People were starving and sleeping on bare concrete, all across the CBD. No where was the homeless issue more prominent or the economic divide more stark than in the Sea Point Promenade.
On the elite tennis courts, at the refurbished but ghostly and abandoned swimming pools, between all the penthouse apartments, pure-bred dogs on leashes and Nike-donning walkers in their warm tracksuits, lay families and people from all races and creeds. Old and Young. On the cold and frosted grass and concrete. Clutching for warmth from the plastic sheets they slept under. Hungry and desperate: many of these people shared a little of their stories with me, and I started taking photos.
Bin day in the Suburbs: where the homeless scratch for food, as the privileged run by with their artisan coffee, hiding behind those masks
Initially, I wasn't sure where I was going with this, but I was so overcome with grief that we, as humanity, could stand by and watch this happen.
At the start, on that 1st cold day, I looked at the photos I'd taken and I decided I needed a song to go with them.
And not just any song.
I needed a song of hope, and I still do.
I think all of us do.
Thus my "Song of Hope Project" began.
These three photos were taken right after eachother, and were the exact moment when "A Song of Hope" was born
I had to start writing again after 20 years, even if the sole purpose was to highlight the plight of the homeless in our beautiful but tragic city.
This burning desire to spread the word and create awareness got me restarted with voice training and writing music for the 1st time since my teens: having lost hope and inspiration for my creativity decades ago.
The despirate seeking shelter under the Sea Point Civic Centre, under a plastic sheet on the freezing grass and waiting for someone kind to stop for long enough to bother to read their sign and hear their story
It was my vision to put music and my images together to transport listeners and viewers into those freezing mornings and the warmth I found in giving.
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It was around this time that I came across the burnt out Mini-cooper at the beach road bus stop. I discovered that this vehicle was used by Peter Wagenaar to feed the hungry - literally out of the back seat.
Apparently, it is alleged that a person or persons affiliated with the home-owner's association of Greenpoint and/ or it's surrounds, were responsible for setting his car alight. This act of arson and cruelty was allegedly motivated by complaints from residents in the area that somehow, feeding the hungry was encouraging vagrants to frequent the area when in actual fact, they would have been there anyway... Just hungrier. Absolutely heartbreaking.
Here I met Peter Wagenaar himself and his assistant, both with hearts of gold, handing out soup and bread to the hungry. When I asked what I could do to help, they said they were receiving donations of soup and bread, but if really wanted to help, they'd appreciate fresh fruit like apples because they can be transported and stored easily by people with access to nothing and needed to travel on foot.
I was so moved.
So my son and I dropped fruit once a week, until the car disappeared from it's spot.
When that happened, I was lost. I didn't know what on earth I'd do now. This small organisation with big hearts had given me such hope and I honestly felt lost standing there, with my arms full of apples.
After handing the apples over to a cold, hungry and lonely stranger, I was driving home in the dark and I spotted a Ladles of Love vehicle. And thus my story with Ladles of Love began. I found their website and registered to volunteer.
The Cape Town International Convention Centre, rendered inactive by the pandemic, was repurposed as a temporary hospital, as well as a space for Ladles of Love to collect, manufacture and deliver food to thousands of hungry and desperate people across hundreds of shelters and smaller charities
I worked alongside out-of-work executive chefs, people studying their doctorates at University, shop owners, car guards, lawyers and waitresses. All of us: equal, as we turned our own struggle into work for the hungry. I have very clear and poignant memories of groups of volunteers hauling 25 to 50kg bags of rice and sugar off the back of container trucks in the pouring rain. All of us scrambling to keep the food safe and not concerned with how drenched we were.
I later found out about the #minimeltdown movement and #soupertroopers, and discovered that they were all collaborating along with #ladlesoflovect to feed our souls and the tummies of our most vulnerable citizens.
Matthew and I preparing cookies for the children's charities for South African "Youth Day" 2020
Through these precious organisations, our grief of the loss of a previous life was given purpose.
Like many of the volunteers, I have since found stable employment and my Son is thankfully back in school (homeschooling is seriously not in my DNA). We have returned to a relatively normal life.
@ZakLudick, @AimeLudick @MerenLudick and @Matthew-Williams and my mom and I, all making sandwiches for the incredible Guinness World Record Breaking feat, smashed by Ladles of Love, for the most sandwiches made in one hour
News24 Ladles of Love - Breaking Records to Feed more
But so many people have no normal to return to. They have no jobs or homes to go back to. And as we edge closer to winter again, and the homeless crisis in the city continues to worsen the urgency to take action falls on each and every single one of us. Whether you donate money, food, clothes time or you spread awareness, I implore you to do your bit. To live a few seconds in someone else's existence and realise that one small act of kindness can cause a massive wave of hope: and therein, miracles can be born.
Please accept this, my loving gift to you: My “Song of Hope.”
Credits: A massive thank you to Lea McKrill for sponsoring the making of this audio and video track and to Jasper Dick for his incredible musical talents. This would not have been possible without you.
Social Media links and tags:
https://www.facebook.com/claire.mobey
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5rrAtInNeX48lQhqx5pIhw
https://www.instagram.com/clairemobey/
@clairemobey
https://clairemobey.hearnow.com/a-song-of-hope?fbclid=IwAR1RbRodbejB3RVhmlr4ybuDHO9gC1639hh8d5ZexAtYnrh1grBAEIIIWZI
https://open.spotify.com/show/03j4BWv9jPmsKLrEf5voci
https://ladlesoflove.org.za/
https://minimeltdown.co.za/
#MiniMeltdown #Lovealwayswins #spreadthelove #ladlesoflovect #soupertroopers #thehumanityhub #loveactivist #Covid19Pandemic #LockdownSA #Imstaying #thegreenlea
All photos were taken by @ClaireMobey