Call to help family in dire straits
A family housed in a community hall since the loss of their house in the April floods is in need of a house to cater to their child with a critical illness.
THE Pinetown Highway Child and Family Welfare Society is on the hunt for a Good Samaritan to donate a house to the Sithole family which is headed up by a grandmother who is fostering an ill child in a community hall. The grandmother is one of the thousands of people who lost their homes during the April floods.
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She was left homeless with six children who are all under the age of 10, with one being critically ill with a condition.
Sibongile Manyathi, the director of the society, said the society has been on the ground helping flood victims with food parcels and clothes they get as donations.
“We have been touched by this family who is in dire need of a house because their circumstances make it difficult for them to be in that space. The child has a condition where he has to walk around with a container that carries his urine. The condition requires the child to be in a private and sanitised environment. We are appealing to the public to help us find them a home so the child can have their privacy and be effectively treated and taken care of,” she said.
In normal circumstances, Manyathi said they take care of child-headed households and provide for impoverished families.
“We try to make sure that those children are able to get grants and are registered in a school. Some are not able to get their grant right away, so we enrol them in a programme called CSG. This programme ensures that they are provided with an amount of money while they wait for a grant, and they automatically are put off once the grant is ready,” she said.
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Furthermore, she said the society has a food room which has been used the most since the floods. “The food room is where we store food that will be donated to where the flood victims are. With the number of people we are helping, the room is almost empty because every donation we get is used immediately. We also accept pre-loved quality clothes that can help people,” she said.
Manyathi said any kind of donation would be of great use as they continue to resolve the plight of those in recovery from the destruction caused by the floods.
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