Help fill Buckets of love and hope

THE Durban Child and Youth Care Centre is appealing to the community for donations for food parcels for children going home for holiday visits.

With the December school holidays only a few months away, Durban Child and Youth Care Centre has to arrange 75 food parcels for children who will be visiting their homes over the school holidays. These food parcels are vital to sustain them until they return to the children’s home.

“The majority of children placed in our care are from underprivileged homes. In most cases the bucket of love and hope we send them home with, becomes their only source of survival over the holidays. With some of our children on anti-retro viral treatments, we simply cannot allow them to miss a meal or take their medication on an empty stomach. This food bucket helps to ensure that our kids spend time with their families and get their most basic need met – food,” said Thina Hlophe, resource developer at the centre.

Buckets consist of non-perishable foods such as baked beans, tinned fish and vegetable curry, 5kg rice, 2kg maize meal, 2kg sugar, 2kg samp, Morvite instant porridge or Jungle oats, tea, coffee and powdered milk, onion soup, 2l oil, peanut butter and jam.

“We urge the community to assist us by pledging to fill up buckets for the fourth term holidays so that we can ensure that our children’s most pivotal need is well taken care of even when they are not in our care,” said Thina.

Thina extended the centre's thanks to Thashil Pillay for filling 31 buckets with non-perishable foods for the Buckets of Love and Hope initiative. Thashil is a Grade 11 pupil at Durban High School, and he challenges the school and pupils to also take up this initiative and support the Durban Child and Youth Care Centre through donating food parcels.