Ladies of Hope still standing and serving the community
The Covid-19 pandemic has crippled many organisations in our communities and some are just hanging on to the little hope they have because our communities need their services. Ladies of Hope is an organisation that has been running for the past twenty years. The organisation has been providing essential services to many not just in …
The Covid-19 pandemic has crippled many organisations in our communities and some are just hanging on to the little hope they have because our communities need their services. Ladies of Hope is an organisation that has been running for the past twenty years.
The organisation has been providing essential services to many not just in the Ennerdale community but in the Gauteng area. Services offered by Ladies of Hope include a Hospice IPU where they specialise in palliative care and a home-based care programme where caregivers go out to take care of the elderly patients in their own homes.
The organisation has a drug rehabilitation centre that provides counseling to drug addicts and refers them to in-patient rehabilitation centres if needed. On the premises, they also offer marriage counselling, trauma counselling, pre, and post-marital counselling, and many other community services.
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Ladies of Hope has a feeding scheme that caters to the community of Ennerdale three times a week. They also have support and shelter for abused women and children who have been affected by gender-based violence and drug abuse.
We asked the founder and CEO of Ladies of Hope Myrtle Williams about how the pandemic affected the organisation and she said: “With the initial 21 days of lockdown last year, we were going back and forth, not knowing what to do. We then closed everything down for the first three weeks of lockdown and I then joined the Covid disaster group in Ennerdale and it was then when it dawned on me that we cannot close the place down because we are the so-called frontline workers. We decided to reopen and rotate staff so that not everyone was here together.”
Even though the organisation has been operating through the pandemic, Williams added that the challenge they are currently facing is the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) because they need to protect themselves as they are also doing covid testing at the centre.
The organisation has also been struggling with the rise of people coming to their feeding scheme and needs sponsors for groceries so that they can cook for the masses every week.
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