The Norwood, Orange Grove and Houghton Community Action Network (Noah Can) donated 230 emergency food parcels and sanity products for Women’s Day.
These packages were distributed to vulnerable families in and around the organisation’s focus areas with the biggest concentration being in Orange Grove and surroundings.
Noah Can collects toiletries and sanitary pads throughout the year to try and hit targets for important days, like Women’s Day. They had set plans to hand out 230 emergency food parcels three days before Women’s Day, and used that as an opportunity to share a little extra with the women in the community.
The food parcels always contain a big bag of vegetables, tinned vegetables or meat, 2.5kg maize meal, healthy soup mixes and whatever else they have available at the time. For the Women’s Day project, Noah Can aimed for 230 and met their target. Due to the high number of packages needed, not every package was the same, but they all had sanitary pads and a mix of soap, toothbrushes, deodorants, laundry soaps, body soaps and facecloths and some chocolates all in lovely bags. These packages were handed out along with the emergency food parcels on August 5.
“We tried to ensure as many women as possible received the hampers along with their emergency food parcels, but some men were assisted too. They will have wives, sisters, mothers, daughters and aunts who they live with that can benefit from the assistance provided,” said Noah Can coordinator Emily Wellman.
“If you are in need of emergency food parcels, the chances of you having enough funds to purchase items like toiletries are extremely low. Women, especially, are negatively affected because of menstruation. Through these items and for Women’s Day, the women and girls in our community will be able to have one less thing to worry about for a little while.
“Imagine trying to apply for a much-needed job but not having access to soap or deodorant – the chances of you being successful are slim if you have body odour, or you are menstruating and have no sanitary products to use. These are the small things that matter which we are trying to assist with.
The donors of this initiative and many more are members of the public and school children in need of community hours as part of their life orientation classes. Community members donate either the ‘end period poverty’ pack which contains two bars of soap, a dark face cloth and four packs of sanitary pads or the ‘dignity’ packs which contain one green bar of laundry soap, two bars of body soap, two deodorants, two toothbrushes and toothpaste.
“Every distribution of emergency food parcels is an enormous task and a huge load of work for our volunteers, but for special days like this Women’s Day handout, the work is doubled. We are so lucky to have as many committed volunteers as we do who work hard and with a passion to try and support those less fortunate in our community. I’m constantly in awe of what we manage to accomplish month after month, after month. It’s inspiring!” concluded Wellman.
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