Fruit and warm blankets for hostel dwellers
About 20 warm blankets were donated and each person received two fruit packs.
Destitute people living in abandoned hostel blocks in Mamelodi received warm blankets and fruit packs on Sunday.
About 20 warm blankets were donated and each person received two fruit packs, distributed by the Sizophila humanitarian drive under the ANC national youth task team.
Sizwe Tsiane from the ANC youth said the drive was formed by their national youth spokesperson Sizophila Mkhize.
Its aim is to reach out to homeless and destitute people in an effort to find solutions for them as well as empowering them.
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“The people received a donation of 50 packets of various fruits to strengthen their immune system,” said Tsiane.
“The blankets were meant to keep them warm during this horrible pandemic.”
He said the generous donations of blankets came from people who share the same sentiments as their programme.
The Sizophila humanitarian drive called for more donations from local businessmen in Mamelodi and surrounding areas to help.
The drive is already an ongoing outreach programme in Mamelodi where they are planning to partner with Second Chance rehabilitation centre to recruit young drug addicts to go to rehab.
This initiative is called LaSphumaKhona.
Tsiane said they chose the hostels because they are abandoned by the state, and all homeless “drug addicts” in Mamelodi gather there and sleep there, so that they could get their fix and sell drugs there, uninterrupted.
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“Our aim is to organise these members of society, to mobilise them, and to demand more assistance from social development in this regard,” said Tsiane.
“We want to help the people by taking drug users to rehab and champion the interest of building and investing in rehabilitation centres, as there is not even a single one in Mamelodi owned by the state,” he said.
The only rehab in Mamelodi according to him is Second Chance, an initiative of an NGO, with no resources and little support from the government.
Other issues the drive will be addressing is drugs at school premises.
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