Inner-city organisation asks for support to assist vulnerable members
“In this time, we are living in, it is becoming clear that losing a job, a home, a family could actually happen to anyone.”
Due to the number of temporary shelters closing down in Pretoria, a local organisation wants to help the vulnerable who are once again out on the street.
The Tshwane Leadership Foundation (TLF) in the Pretoria CBD has embarked on a donation drive for Mandela Day.
TLF is an inner-city community organisation committed to assisting women and children, hospices, people living with mental illness, the homeless and the elderly with basic needs.
According to TLF marketing communications co-ordinator Robinne Renkin their drive comes as many temporary shelters, set for Covid-19 relief in Tshwane, were steadily closing down.
“Even though these shelters were built in a very short time and helped thousands of people, they were not created to be sustainable.
“So many people are being turned back into the streets in the cold and with no defence against Covid-19.”
He further added that social perception to link homelessness and crime needed to be challenged fiercely by society.
Renkin expressed that the pandemic had and would in the next few months contribute to loss of income, loss of the breadwinner in families and many other disturbances.
“We as a society will have to do better to support each other.”
Renkin said the vulnerable communities in the Pretoria CBD had also been facing numerous challenges due to Covid-19.
“Those who work in the informal sector were hit very hard with loss of daily income. There was an increase in the need for food from low-income families, and we witnessed a massive increase in family violence during the hard lockdown period,” he said.
“In this time, we are living in, it is becoming clear that losing a job, a home, a family could actually happen to anyone.”
He said society needed to prioritise to work hand-in-hand to provide sustainable pathways out of homelessness.
“All stakeholders in society should realise their obligation to eradicate homelessness in our city.”
He said during the last two years, TLF were reminded how collaboration and community support had become the backbone of real urban transformation.
Renkin said as part of their ways to find solutions to assist the homeless, they were continuing with collaborative efforts to assist the ‘unprotected’ members of Pretoria.
“TLF serves the most vulnerable people of the city and the donations we are gathering will help them keep warm through the wintertime and also help those who suffer the loss of income due to the pandemic.”
He said financial donations through the drive were welcome and would help in the purchasing of food parcels for vulnerable families, to meet needs.
Renkin said TLF was collecting items in three different categories:
– Nonperishable food items like canned foods, powder soups, and instant porridge for food parcels and essential toiletries like toothpaste, soap bars and body cream for vulnerable families;
– Winter support for TLF residential programmes such as warm clothes, blankets, warm water bottles, warm socks, cooked and frozen soup, and other foods that can be distributed immediately; and
– Donations for outreach teams to support homeless and vulnerable persons living on the streets. Items such as sleeping bags, shoes, beanies, backpacks and other weather and outdoor appropriate gear and foods such as snack bars, fruits, and other food items that are light and do not need cooking.
“We are also launching an urgent plea for face masks to be distributed among the homeless communities,” he said.
Renkin said the donation could be delivered to Burgers Park Lane, Pretoria Central.
He said to adhere to Covid-19 regulations, donors could safely wait inside their vehicles, contact a member, who would then assist with the offloading of donations and also receive more information about the persons their donation will uplift.
“Staff members will be on duty and present to receive guests.”
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