14 May Local NGOs Join Forces To Provide For Mbombela Communities
Ronel Oosthuizen, partnerships, fundraising and communications manager of Penreach told Lowvelder, “Penreach has responded to the Covid-19 crisis by forming alliances to make sure our beneficiaries can still access food during the lockdown. Pediatric Care Africa and Dr Andre Hattingh have been instrumental in getting Penreach off the ground with distributions.”
Dr Andre Hattingh, founder of PCA, commented, “Penreach has a programme whereby they provide food to children at schools, but due to the lockdown that is not possible, as all schools are closed. The only way to ensure children receive food during these trying times is to distribute food in needy communities.”
“Our philosophy is a simple one: if a child can’t come to the food, the food will go to the child,” Hattingh explained.
The PCA team are training the Penreach volunteers how to distribute to communities.
Hattingh said, “It is very important for all of our volunteers involved in this widespread food distribution to practice and understand how to safely hand out food in their respective communities while taking extreme care to keep themselves and the persons they are attending to safe by wearing all appropriate PPE and by following a very stringent disinfecting protocol.”
Some of the communities that will be helped are:
- Mataffin
- Daantjie
- Barberton
- Nkomazi
- Shabalala
- Matsulu
- Mpakeni
- Jerusalem
- Msholozi
Some of the Penreach volunteers have been contacted to assist by reaching beneficiaries in Ehlanzeni. Golden Harvest Produce is packaging goods. Halls, Joubert & Sons and Farmers Trust donated avocados, oranges and naartjies for distribution. The Roger Federer Trust is on board to provide food relief and funds. The team are also in contact with other organisations and the Department of Education so they can distribute widely.
Oosthuizen added, “Halls and Penreach have created a siSwati booklet that is being distributed in communities to create Covid-19 awareness and encourage behavioural change recommended to stop the spread of the virus.”
She continued, “Penreach will continue to support our educators while in lockdown and will offer skills development, coaching and mentoring from platforms such as our online learning platform, WhatsApp groups, radio and communities of practice.”
The teams call on the public to support them. Interested people can email partners@penryn.co.za for any food donations or other support.
original story can be found on https://lowvelder.co.za/613815/local-ngos-join-forces-provide-mbombela-communities/
