Donations needed in Diepsloot for abused women and children

The abused women and children who visit the Green Door shelter in Diepsloot will now get to stay in a shelter that is more private thanks to a donation by a Fourways businesswoman.

Penny Steele of Penny Steele Interiors in the Magaliessig area first read about the shelter in the Fourways Review back in March and was really moved by the work that Brown Lekekela does in the community.

Lekekela, on a completely volunteer basis, provides a safe shelter and support for victims of rape, domestic violence or sexual assault in the township. Steele wanted to do something to help, and so donated four sets of curtains to the shelter.

“I saw the article and so phoned [Lekekela] up and said while I can’t make a financial contribution, would he be interested in some curtains as I have plenty of material lying around,” Steele told the Fourways Review on 25 October, when she and friend Trish Gordon James visited the shelter to hang the donated curtains up in the shelter.

“I feel so strongly about women who are abused, and Brown’s work really rang a bell with me.”

Steele made the curtains herself over a period of about two months and contacted one of her suppliers, Windowlines, to donate the curtain tracks needed to hang them. The donations now cover windows in the shelter’s entrance hall, bedroom and bathroom and provide those seeking safety the gift of privacy.

“I feel good today because I know people really want to support my work,” said Lekekela of the donation. “It is sometimes hard to carry on with my work without help, but now I feel supported to continue.

“It’s a special day because there are people who care about what I do, and there is someone doing something to help.”

The Green Door shelter runs entirely on donations and needs financial support to continue its important work. Financial assistance is always welcome, and with the building of a new room to support abused women and their children, Lekekela is looking for furniture and household goods to furnish the newly built room.

He also hopes to build two new rooms on the property to support multiple families at once, and so is looking for assistance and materials to build further.

Here are some items that the shelter needs to be donated:

• Non-perishable food to feed victims (long-

life milk, porridge, baked beans, etc)

• Furniture for the new room (bed, bed linen, a set of drawers, etc) as well as glass for the window panes

• Building materials for future construction (cement, building sand, plastering sand, roof timbers, corrugated iron, door frames and window frames).

Details: Brown Lekekela brownlekekela@gmail.com; 078 888 2144.