Local Samaritan makes Alberton a better community

Alberton can be proud of its Emergency Services Chaplaincy (ESC) for putting a smile on different faces and to make the community a better living place.

ESC is a non-profit pastoral support organisation that provides emotional, spiritual and psychological support to all first emergency responders.

According to chaplain Corne van Tonder of ESC, everyone wants to feel loved especially if they have gone or are currently going through emotional pain, trauma or stress.

“It is important to initiate relationships with those individuals who are under the weather. It helps them to be free and to be able to express how they feel without fear of being judged or misunderstood,” said Corne.

The first emergency responders need all the support plus the love they can get because they are the first eyewitnesses to everything that happens in the community.

The first emergency responders include SAPS, fire department, EMPD, hospitals, local health facilities and helicopter emergency medical service, just to name a few.

ESC ensures that they provide psychological support and guidance after the first responders are exposed to whatever situation they faced which later may cause flashbacks, emotional pain, trauma or stress.

The organisation is not only limited to helping the emergency work responders but moreover, provides spiritual well-being and pastoral support to afflicted citizens and communities that have suffered traumatic events in their lives.

“It is easy to judge or to conclude when you don’t know the whole story. Vagrants are usually misinterpreted for the worst because apparently, they left their homes because of their unruly behaviours, which is not always the case,” Corne said.

“I met this vagrant the other day and when he told me his story it was so painful because all he was asking for was finances to go back to his home in Port Elizabeth to be with his mother. We made means to contact his mom beforehand as part of the standard procedures and was later provided with the money to go back home – which he did and now he is doing quite well in life,” Corne explained.

ESC works hand-in-hand with the other three Alberton NPOs Addicts Voice, Fearless Life Ministries and Salvation Foundation.

Corne told the Alberton Record that it always makes her feel good that she will leave the world at least a little better than what she found it.

“You do not have to help the whole world to say you have made a difference. However, that one person to whom you have brought a smile on their face marks as a difference,” Corne said.

The services provided by ESC are free to all first responders and everyone in dire need. It is only on certain occasions with the community they will charge for petrol coverage.

To make contact with ESC contact Corne van Tonder on 079 447 7010 or cornevantonder@outlook.com