Pray with the Pope: Pray for small businesses

Every month Fr Chris Chatteris SJ reflects on Pope Francis’ prayer intention

Intention: We pray for small and medium-sized businesses; in the midst of economic and social crisis, may they find ways to continue operating, and serving their communities.

I often refer to them as the “Bakkie Men”, those hardworking individuals who are on the road at the crack of dawn before most of us get up to make a living. They often have eye-catching adverts painted on their vehicles. “The Drain Brain” was a particularly clever one which I noticed recently on the streets of Cape Town, presumably a plumber specialising in blocked drains.

Less mobile and visible, but no less important, are the multitude of women running small businesses, often from home, while managing the household, everything from freelance writing to “online thrifting”. Apparently, it’s now considered fashionable as well as morally commendable to go “thrifting”, so there are women entrepreneurs who snap up second-hand bargains online and then retail them in their local communities.

Hard work, long hours and a heavy burden of responsibility are the lot of such entrepreneurs, but their labours can be rewarded. A Jesuit confrère from India once told me how his brother and sister-in-law made a living running a tea stall the size of a small car on the streets of a large Indian city. He would make the tea while she skimmed off the cream from the milk to make ghee. Customers were abundant because of the location of the stall, just outside a large government building. From this small business they supported themselves and managed to send their children to university.

A farmer and his wife I knew here in South Africa put their children through university by running a farm stall which started by selling home-made pickles and expanded to become a popular roadside eatery for travellers and tourists.

Respect street traders

The above-mentioned are truly admirable in their energy, inventiveness and persistence, but the small business people who command even more of my respect are those who brave the elements to make a living as street traders, for example pavement barbers and mielie sellers. In Durban, the Denis Hurley Centre has launched a startup for a number of street traders who sell donated second-hand books.

Then there are those who spend the whole day at the traffic lights, moving between cars and selling wares such as The Big Issue magazine, a job guaranteed to give one sore feet and a slim waistline!

And then there are the waste-pickers who gather together those huge bundles of recyclables and then drag them through the traffic to the recycling centre, inevitably irritating drivers who get stuck behind them. They are surely among the more underappreciated small entrepreneurs in our society. They clean up our litter and reduce our carbon footprint — they really should take a bow before a grateful planet.

An interesting thought-experiment is to imagine what would happen if all of these people suddenly went on strike. This would probably not bring the economy to its knees, but it would certainly cause us to appreciate small business people more when we couldn’t get a plumber to fix a leak or go to the hairdresser or pick up a snack at our favourite street stall.

May the Lord bless their efforts on behalf of their families and may we who have more secure employment learn to appreciate them better.