WITH the growing number of people infected with the novel coronavirus in the country, now surpassing 7 800, civil society organisations, Community Policing Forum’s (CPF) and non-profit organisations (NPO) are acutely aware that their role in the pandemic is more crucial than ever.

As part of its way of giving back, various civic associations have teamed up with the Greenwood Park CPF Sub Forum 2 to help those most in need of help, residents of the various informal settlements.

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Members of the sub-forum led by chairperson, Rajiv Jaynath, as well as volunteers have distributed more than a 1 000 food hampers since the start of the lockdown.

On Friday the team of volunteers began food distribution hampers to five informal settlements in the area.

One of those volunteers, Sakile Tabede, said being on the frontline has shown him how many people are in need.

“Initially we partnered with the CPF to distribute soap and pamphlets, just educating people about the coronavirus and the risk it poses. As the lockdown went on we started seeing more and more people struggling for food so we created a database of residents who were in most need of help in five settlements, namely, Mandeni, KwaMathambo, Havelock, Thandanani and Sim Place. I think being on the frontline and giving out the hampers, we are constantly reminded that without this hamper distribution families were going hungry every night,” Tabede explained.

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Rajiv Jaynath of the CPF said they had identified the need for intervention from an early stage.

“I think from seeing how the virus was affecting the rest of the world we got a sense that hunger would not only be a problem during the hard lockdown, but also at a later stage when certain restrictions of movement were lifted. Now that we have moved to level 4 we know this is not the end of the pandemic, we are looking at this going on for months and that’s why we will continue with the drive for as long as need be. Beside the settlements, we’ve also been helping residents in Avoca and Effingham who are also living below the bread line,” Jaynath said.

The food hampers distributed contain a number of nutritional food items including soup, samp and maize.

If you would like to help with the hamper drive, contact Jaynath on 082 494 2937.

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