Mohamed Ameen Dabhelia- 30/05/2016

With South Africa experiencing serious economic difficulties, the call for donations from aid organisations are on the rise as thousands of people are in dire need for sustenance with the recent drought, economic downturn and disasters adding to the country’s woes.

The Gift of the Givers says the calamities facing the country are worse than anything experienced since the dawn of democracy.

The organisation says natural disasters, unemployment, rising prices and ‘inflation spiking’ impacts strongly on the economics and the social well being of a household.

SOUTH AFRICA’S POOR SUFFERS FROM THE DRY CRACKS

Gift of the Givers Dr Imtiaz Sooliman says assistance programs started last year has been strongest in the Free State and KwaZulu-Natal.

“Although we worked in Limpopo, North West, Northern Cape and parts of Eastern Cape, Western Cape, we have also been involved in other areas, progressively providing bottled water.”

However Dr Sooliman says their main aim is to create constant and bigger quantities of water in these areas.

“We started bringing water tankers, we put in Jojo tanks, free water reservoirs that hold 112 000 litres of water each and started finding critical areas to drill boreholes.”

He says the organisation has already created 10 boreholes with another 4 coming up this week which will be able to provide more than half a million litres of water a day.

Dr Sooliman says while providing water to affected areas, they have also provided animal feed to help sustain animals from suffering and dying from hunger.

TRAGEDY AT LILY MINE

The management at Lily Mine says it’s assured the families of the three mine workers trapped underground that operations will not resume in the part of the mine where the lamp room they were working in collapsed.

In February, a shaft at the Barberton mine collapsed.

Pretty Nkambule, Yvonne Mnisi and Solomon Nyerende remain trapped underground eversince.

A plan to resume operations at the mine has now been approved.

Dr Sooliman says the organisation initially didn’t get involved because they expected mining management to help the miners and families of the trapped Lily Mine workers.

“In the last few weeks, we have been getting a number of letters, not from one, but several family members, quoted as saying ‘please, our children are very hungry, we haven’t been paid for so many months, you know what happened here, we’ve waited patiently, but we haven’t been paid, we going hungry, we can’t pay our rent’, with the biggest emphasis on a shortage food.”

He says about two and a half weeks ago, the first batch of aid reached the families and miners in Mpumulanga with a second drop off expected later this week and a third one scheduled for next week.

FIRE BURNING IN VUWANI

Dr Sooliman says they made the trip to Vuwani in the Limpopo province after 20 schools were burnt down and met with the Limpopo Government where they were asked to offer their assistance and help.

“Whilst we were there, we took some supplies in for the school children, but we made it very clear, that once we bring things in, we don’t expect people to burn anything and if that happens, we walk out.”

He says the organisation is picking up 5 tons of stationery this week for learners who were affected by this unforgiving incident.

“We’ve got food parcels ready for them; we’ve got school uniforms, school shoes and also looking at repairing the classrooms.”

Dr Sooliman says they have voluntary teachers on standby who are ready to come out and try to make up for the lost teaching time.

WINTER WARMTH – LOOKING BEYOND THE COLD

As we head into the winter season, the organisation will be launching their ‘Winter Warmth campaign’ on Wednesday.

Dr Sooliman says this will be their primary focus in the next few months.

“The blanket drive starts taking place throughout the country, and we look at different areas, we look at homeless people, people sitting under the bridge, rural people who are cold.”

However, he says this campaign will not only be giving out blankets.

“Although people talk about blankets, we provide beanies, jackets, warm clothes, shoes, hot soup, hot meals, and sometimes adding additional items to that depending on which areas we go to and what we find beyond the cold.”

CAN AID ORGANISATIONS KEEP IT UP?

With the need for aid growing, the challenges facing many aid organisations are increasing with many of them struggling to find funding and donors for future projects.

Dr Sooliman says the recent drought has cost them at least 25 million rand.

However he has thanked all South Africans and companies for their continuous support and efforts to serve humanity.

Twitter:@thedabhelia

Edited by Faziel Patel