Child-headed families receive food and clothes this festive season

Community Safety Forum (CSF) hosted a thanksgiving event at the Oasis church in Tembisa to donate to child- headed families from in and around Tembisa sections on December 7.

Maila Florah from Tembisa Magistrate Court said as the judiciary, there are projects that they do yearly and last year, they choose an orphanage to give back to. This year, they wanted to reach out to other disadvantaged families.

“We appointed the CSF to locate families that are disadvantaged. They have been doing all the spade work and we came with a tree to plant.

“In the families that the CSF has found, six of them are orphans and one family lives in Teomong, in a cracked house. When you are outside you see the inside and vise versa.

“We reached out to the Tembisa Taxi Association, brought to us by Bishop Michael Mtshali, to assist in building the family a wall and fixing the house.

“We brought the families food parcels and clothes collected from other community members to say this Christmas, here’s something they can have as well,” said Florah.

Thabang Jiyane, ward seven councillor, said this programme is run perfectly during the most difficult time of the year for families like this one, as while neighbours enjoy their Christmas bonuses, these children have no one to turn to.

“This issue is so touching that this should not be about food parcels only, but it should also extend into adopting these families so they could be easily assisted by the local council in terms of education needs and municipal bills that they cannot afford to pay anymore as there are no more bread winners in the house,” said Jiyane.

CSF Ekurhuleni north region chairperson Melusi Kabe said the CSF was formed to be an executive for the community from Olifantsfontein to Beckford View.

“We identify which families within the community that are in need of our assistance and we are able to reach for help. We liaise with councillors to further assist people in need.

“We also help drug addicts go to rehabilitation centres; the centre we use in most cases is the one in Benoni.

“We had to choose two members from different sections, from Difateng, Winnie Mandela, and Endulwini. We had two families each to assist. This is not the end, we aim to go big again next year.

“These families received food and clothes, and, in January when schools re-open, we agreed as stakeholders that we will meet up again and see where we can assist the community at large with school material,” said Kabe.