Residents open their hearts and wallets to keep east NGO going
The organisation housing ill patients who use oxygen tanks evade darkness after receiving truckloads of donations from the Pretoria East community.
A week-long power outage saw a local non-profit organisation struggling to keep operating vital equipment including oxygen machines.
The Kungwini Welfare Organisation (KWO) in the east of Pretoria was without power after the Wapadrand substation was damaged by a fire recently.
KWO, which houses 160 adults, had two generators which cost almost R5 000 a day to operate.
“Unfortunately we cannot afford to not have generators running as we are a 24-hour care and residence home that looks after 160 adults with severe and profound disabilities,” said marketing manager of KWO, Manuela Loubser.
Fortunately for the organisation, community members and local businesses decided to help out by donating to keep the generators running.
“This meant we could continue providing residents with three meals and their daily tea times,” said Loubser, adding that she had spoken to a community member about concerns around keeping the lights on.
The community member, Diane Wonfor, had called Loubser to arrange for the collection of a double-door refrigerator she wanted to donate.
“She asked me if she could post a message on her social media requesting donations of diesel and or funds to assist us. That evening, I received phone calls and WhatsApp messages from the community in the east of Pretoria asking how they could help,” said Loubser.
Wonfor said it broke her heart to hear that the organisation was in such a “precarious situation”.
She said KWO was a huge part of the community, and it was common knowledge that the residents were treated with the utmost care, compassion, and love.
“I felt that I had to do something so I posted a message on my estate WhatsApp group and various other groups and made calls to friends, family, and anybody I thought could help,” she said.
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Loubser said trucks drove in the following morning filled with containers with diesel from various parts of the east.
The NPO received a total of 1 425 litres of diesel donations.
“The calls kept coming in and eventually we had no more containers to accept any more diesel.
“I offered an alternative suggestion to our donors that if they would still like to help us to please pay funds into our MBT garage account or our organisation account, which they did,” said Loubser.
The organisation managed to recover the costs they had initially spent on diesel through the donations from the community.
Residents were also treated with ready-made hot chocolate from Pierneef Theatre, soup from Chefs with Compassion, and fruit from Terugploeg.
Loubser went on to thank ward councillors in the area and the more than 17 donors and private donors who helped keep their lights on during the stressful week.
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