HOPE: African Worry Dolls re-dress the lives of Cape Town homeless

Each one of the thirty dolls at the centre of the table is unique and handmade from recycled materials. Collectively they are the day’s target for a dozen men and women who belong to the Souper Squad, an empowerment programme run by Souper Troopers, the Cape Town homeless advocacy and service non-profit organisation.

Of the 25 Squad members, 22 are clean and no longer using the substances they were addicted to, 20 no longer live on the streets, 25 have bank accounts and ID documents, eight have managed to save for their future, 25 send money home to their families every month and 25 have achieved the goals they set for themselves.

While the Squad works, disco and ’80s tracks pump energy and comfort through the workshop in this restored old Woodstock building, the new home of Souper Troopers. The work is divided between two long tables – one for making bodies; one for dressing and hair. Phillip Slabbert, who has purchased his own small sewing machine to finish garment edges, has his own space in a quiet corner, and happily works with headphones on.

Each doll is hand-crafted from donated materials, from stockings to shweshwe offcuts to mini pompoms, in a process that is both creative and therapeutic. Image: Simona StoneFrom there they go to Tania Dilgee, the face specialist. There’s more to this than putting heads on bodies and stitching a mouth and two eyes. There are pupils, irises and eyebrows, and a slight deviation of a mouth or a raised eyebrow could make a doll look mean, rather than comforting.

Oliver deftly wraps a circle of shweshwe around a body, folding it into swirls of red and black as she talks about the project. “Personally, I can say that the dolls have completely changed my life. I think my progress in the last three months is much more than in the last five years.” She takes great pride in her work, with her designs growing from the exclusively pencil skirts of her first dolls to flouncy frocks.

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