Estate Living Digital Publication Issue 2 February 2015 | Page 55

BIG
IS

training
and
development
courses are also made available
to those vendors wanting to
secure long-term employment.
More pleasurable activities like
art classes are even arranged, as
well as health checks to provide a
complete, enriched development
facility.

SUE!

The monthly magazine is sold
by approximately 350 vendors,
who receive R10 from the sale
of each copy, with the remaining
R10 going towards admin and
publishing costs. Despite being a
predominately Cape Town-based
initiative, the magazine prints
approximately14,000copieseach
month and has helped vendors
earn over R15 million since
launching in South Africa 18 years
ago. Whilst all are unemployed
and marginalised, not all vendors
are necessarily homeless –
another misconception made by
many, including me.
“People wrongly assume that The
Big Issue is sold by homeless
people,” says Janna. However,
anyone can sign up to be a vendor
and strict monitoring ensures
that the very few restrictions are
enforced. Would-be vendors
simplyarriveatTheBigIssue