Photo: Good News Network
Philani Dladla, once homeless, now serves others with the money he gets selling used books he reviews.
Terry Turner reported recently on a South African man who went through a period of homelessness and, while relying on the kindness of strangers, gave a lot of thought to how he might give back. He started providing book reviews for used books he sold and using the proceeds to help others.
Turner’s Good News Network piece begins, “Called the ‘Pavement Bookworm,’ he may look like a roadside panhandler, but this once homeless man is actually running a reading foundation. …
“Philani Dladla credits his love of books, specifically motivational ones, with breaking his drug habit. Now that he’s clean, he has dedicated his life to being of service to others.
“Today, he can be found selling used books to passing motorists — but only after he’s read them first. That way, he can give passersby a book review and set the price accordingly; from a dollar for books he doesn’t like, to six dollars for real page-turners.
“While still homeless himself, Dladla began using the money to buy other homeless people soup and bread every day.
“ ‘Seeing their smiles motivated me to keep using the little I had to spread happiness,’ Dladla said. …
“No longer homeless, he still feeds those on the streets, and even started a ‘Pavement Bookworm’ Book Readers’ Club in a local park where kids can hang out and read until their parents come home from work.
“He has also set up a website where people in Johannesburg, South Africa, can donate books or support a child in the reading club.”
Read more at Good News Network, here.
I’m pretty clueless about how to interact with someone who is homeless, although I’ve learned to smile since Suzanne told me that smiling was Mother Teresa’s advice.
And I’m getting to know the woman who spends the winter in one of the two ladies room cubicles at the Porter Square T station. She tends to rant, but her rants sometimes make sense. I think it’s a kindness that the T lets her stay on cold nights. She doesn’t seem to be doing any harm. Of course, it’s an outrage that anyone is without a home in this country.
Suzanne's Mom's Blog 
Good for you for going outside your comfort zone and working to learn to interact with homeless persons. The world needs more people like you.
No, really, I’m no good at this. The most I do is buy the “Spare Change” newspaper sold by homeless vendors. At the rate the country is going, though, we’re bound to start hearing people we know are homeless.
what a feel good post. Thanks
Thanks for reading. Hope spring is coming to the Maritimes. Still cold here.
Yes, here too.
Sad, hard things happen to people, lots of them, but I so cheer on the brave heart that picks themselves up, even if it is a simple thing like reviews!
Indeed. And people who cheer them on like that are what keeps those brave souls going.
Thanks for sharing. It is as “milfordstreet” says: good for us to get outside our comfort zone to meet and interact with people who have a tough life. That’s really where compassion starts in a society.
We are so far from compassion as a country these days, one wonders if we will ever rise to our better selves or fulfill the promise of democracy.
There was an excellent article in the NYT a couple weeks ago about a particular homeless woman in NYC, and what surprised me most was the number of relationships passersby built with her, how they worried about her, etc. We don’t have a lot of obviously homeless people in the small city near here so I have every little experience in dealing with them. I was heartened to know that they can be noticed and cared for by the people who see them regularly.
Case in point: I just saw this story about former VP Joe Biden on NPR’s website. Check it out. https://www.npr.org/2018/03/17/594421324/joe-biden-and-a-homeless-veteran-have-a-very-human-moment
Oh, I saw that! Makes me like Biden even more . . .
I think you will. It starts with people like you, and the US has many people with compassion.
I hope so.