Friday, Jan.
24, 1964
Every time Sydney-born Methodist Evangelist Alan
Walker, 52, delivered a sermon on radio or TV,
his phone rang half the night with pleas for personal
help. The experience told Walker that Australia's
largest city (pop. 2,223,000) has a crying need—and
a means at hand to solve it. And so he organized
the Life Line Movement, which last March opened
a $140,000 center in Sydney, where 250 Protestant
laymen work 24 hours a day answering the telephone
calls that come in to 310971.
Dialing the Life Line Centre brings aid of almost
any kind. Switchboard operators can dispatch "trouble
teams" in radio cars to answer the desperate
pleas of alcoholics, unwed mothers and potential
suicides. If a plea requires specialized help,
Life Line can call upon a battery of professional
men ranging from lawyers to psychologists to podiatrists.
For cases that need follow-through, the organization
can use the 14 homes, hospitals and hostels of
Sydney's Central Methodist Mission, which Walker
also heads. It even conducts group therapy for
many of the disturbed people who come its way,
although Walker and Life Line's volunteers believe
that "the greatest therapy of all" is
worship.
Walker believes that the ubiquitous, impersonal
telephone is an ideal way to "put a mantle
of Christianity" over the lonely crowd of
the modern city. "Half of Sydney's population
has lost all contact with the church," he
says. "The problems emerging from the city
cover the whole gamut of human need, from plain
loneliness to suicidal despair." Since the
Centre opened, the switchboard has taken more
than 15,000 calls—including 90 from people who
were threatening suicide. "We haven't lost
one of them," says the Centre's director,
Peter Stokes.
Most of its energies go to resolve less ultimate
tragedies. Last week, for example, one trouble
team was dispatched to help a nearly blind pensioner
who had called to say he had lost faith in life;
the team cleaned up his dingy room, bought him
food, and above all found him the companionship
he needed. Life Line is so vital an addition to
Sydney that it is listed on the telephone directory's
page of emergency numbers, along with the police
and fire departments. And Christians in Brisbane
and Adelaide have been inspired to organize similar
groups, using Life Line's motto: "Help is
as close as the telephone."
Find this article at:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,875674,00.html |
| LifeLine/Childline
Western Cape was established in Cape Town in 1968
and has, since then, been providing ongoing telephone
counselling, offering immediacy and an intimate
means of communication to those needing to talk.
The need for an organisation committed to the prevention
of child abuse became increasingly apparent and
in 1995 Childline became a division of LifeLine
Western Cape. On average, the crisis lines receive
around 4,500 calls per month.
With offices in Cape Town, Wynberg, Khayelitsha,
Guguletu, Bishop Lavis, Mitchell’s Plain and now
in Athlone, LifeLine/Childline Western Cape has
grown considerably and now employs 113 members
of staff. The majority of the organisation's staff
members work in the area of HIV/AIDS counselling
in the clinics and day hospitals around the greater
Cape Town area.
Cape Town office:
021 461 1113
Bishop Lavis office:
021 934 3027
Guguletu office: 021 633 6191
Khayelitsha office:
021 361 9197
Mitchell’s Plain office: 021 372 5591
Wynberg (Childline) office:
021 762 8198
Athlone (youth development)
office: 021 638 0913
If you need to talk, for whatever reason, we’re
here. Call 021 461 1111 or 0861 322 322 (LifeLine)
or 021 461 1114 or 08000 55 555 (Childline) at
any time of day or night, for anonymous, confidential
counselling.
LifeLine/Childline Western Cape
56 Roeland Street, Cape Town 8001
Tel: +27 21 461 1113
Fax: +27 21 461 6400
Email: info@lifelinewc.org.za
Website: www.lifelinewc.org.za
002-837 NPO
Section 18A/PBO Status : 18/11/13/1085 |
