The team from Krugersdorp Child Welfare was blessed with a donation of stationery from the Move one Million movement on Friday, 12 February.

Lizl Pistorius from Move one Million explained they have been busy with a stationery drive this year and have placed boxes at numerous shops for donations from the community. The donations given to the Krugersdorp Child Welfare were among those donations they received.

Renette Steyn, the manager at Krugersdorp Child Welfare explained that they have been serving the community for the past 95 years and that this specific donation will go a long way towards helping the learners in their care.

Nadine van Rensburg, Treasurer of the Krugersdorp Child Welfare committee explained that a friend of their organisation and Action SA member, Feroza Subjee, is also part of the Move one Million movement and helped to organise the donation for the organisation.

It will be distributed in the areas they work in, namely Munsieville, a part of the Krugersdorp CBD, Dan Pienaarville, Quellerie Park, a part of Krugersdorp West and Burgershoop. She explained that of the approximately 420 cases they are currently handling, about 320 are from Munsieville. Since there are only five social workers to cover these cases, things can get a bit difficult.

The social workers can only work alternative days as they cannot all be in the office at the same time due to Covid-19 regulations.

At the Villa Gloria camp, for instance, they assist 293 people, which consists of 45 families, 119 children and 32 pensioners. At the Pango Camp in Munsieville they assist 55 families, and these are only two of the areas they cover.

We not only provide a service to these families, we also remove children from their parents and try to see if we can help to improve their situation. Some even abandoned their children in these difficult times. A large number of parents, and even some of the foster parents have died as a result of Covid-19,” she explained.

The problem they face now is they do not have enough foster parents, and to be approved as a foster parent takes months. The Krugersdorp Child Welfare gets only a little help from the government and is in desperate need of any donations to help the children and families in their care.

They need food, children’s clothes, school uniforms, stationery, blankets for winter, furniture and cutlery. Monetary donations are more than welcome. One expense they are struggling to cover is printing paper and ink, as hard copy files are needed for all the cases that go to court.

Their cases see the inside of a courtroom quite often as most of the decisions regarding the children in their care are made by the court.

In a video on the Krugersdorp Child Welfare Facebook page, Lizl said, “Thank you to everyone who is helping with the donations, without you we could not have done this. We are still going to go strong this year. And kids are our future.”

If you would like to find out how you can assist Krugersdorp Child Welfare, visit the Facebook page or phone Renette on 011 953 1908.