happy to help.....

simple bottle tops,
used as washers on the plastic roof

yesterday morning we received an early morning call to inform us that there had been a fire in one of the informal settlements in grabouw. these are areas where some of our children come from, where we run sports outreach and where our thembacare palliative home based carers work day in day out and we were more than happy to help out where we could.

with the support of a few of the congregation from the elgin united presbyterian church who donated some funds we were able to purchase some basic items to help reestablish the two families who had lost everything in the fire. the more immediate needs of food etc were provided by the local community who rallied round to help their neighbours but with the money we collected we were able to buy a small stove, buckets, crockery, cooking utensils and we were able to make good use of the volunteer mattresses which we had recently replaced to ensure that the families (of 8 people) could sleep off the floor.

friends helping to rebuild.
see burnt tree in foreground.

it was amazing to see how well the men had done, rebuilding their simple timber structure home, which was covered with black plastic sheeting and insulated with card board. the municipality had provided some basic building materials but much of it was made from locally sourced materials....like the washers that were used to stop the nails pulling through the plastic sheeting, (see the photo showing the 'bottle top washers').

we know that we only provided a part of what is needed to ensure these families get back on their feet and we need to continue to support this and other families like them, we are happy to have put them in touch with other like minded NGO's (charities) who will be able to help them in other ways, such as sorting their ID books which were burnt in the fire and other important documents that may take months to replace but are required to enable people to live each and everyday.