Cape Town – Humanitarian aid organisation Gift of the Givers has restored hope and joy to the community of Ashbury ahead of Easter by donating bulk food hampers as well as wheelchairs.
The organisation brought joy to 200 elderly and physical challenged families by donating food hampers as well as two wheelchairs, and handed over bulk food to the soup kitchen to continue cooking meals for the community.
Soup kitchens in the area cannot keep up with demand due to financial constraints.
Ashbury is a suburb in Montagu with a population of just over 7000 residents and poverty and unemployment have increased over the last 3 years since the covid-19 pandemic.
Gift of the Givers project manager Ali Sablay said that they were contacted by an emotional Carol Burton who keeps many tummies filled in the community.
She said her resources were exhausted and that the community required assistance with food aid ahead of the Easter weekend.
Sablay said tears flowed and words of gratitude from the residents of Ashbury in Montagu when Gift of the Givers teams offloaded bulk food hampers.
“These communities were facing a dark Easter weekend as many of them had nothing to put on the table for their families to enjoy this holy festivity period.
“Teams distributed over 200 food hampers to the physically challenged and underprivileged families identified by the community leaders in the area,” Sablay said.
He said the Gift of the Givers handed two wheelchairs to two elderly people who were on the waiting list for years.
“One of those was a 78-year-old blind Fransina Pakeerd who is also physically challenged, and besides the wheelchair she also received a food hamper, her children had to carry her if she needed to attend hospital or clinic.
“She was carried with emotions although she said she cannot see but she can feel the comfortableness, and she can feel the lord blessing her. She set down on her brand new wheelchair.
“We distributed the food parcels to the families in need and not only as they walked away the children left with huge smiles on their faces,” Sablay said.
He said food supplies were also donated to keep the soup kitchen running.
“Gift of the Givers team will be supporting the food kitchen for the next twelve months and our teams will be here on a monthly basis to deliver these bulk food items, so that children and physically challenged can be fed every day,” Sablay said.
He also said they would be establishing a community food garden with the assistance of Ashbury primary school that offered them a space at the school, which in turn will be a lesson to learners about how to start and look after food gardens.
Sablay said they were grateful to Janu Swanepoel, who was from Montagu by handing over a building in memory of his 23-year-old son to Gift of the Givers.
His son had a nightclub in the building, and now he wants the building to be a source of inspiration to the community.
Sablay thanked KFC for adopting the soup kitchen for the next twelve months in Montagu and all other soup kitchens that the organisation is involved on.
IOL