Lebowa Funerals reaches out to local family

Lebowa Funerals, through their corporate social investment programme, donated new windows, doors, bath tab, security fence and ablution materials worth of R60 000 to the Selona family in Zone 2, Seshego as part of their 67 minutes for Mandela initiative last Thursday.
The family has been living in a dilapidated four room house received from the then Transvaal Provincial Government 34 years ago. The house accommodates 26 residents who are unemployed and depends on social grants for survival.
On the day personnel and management members of Lebowa Funerals cleaned the house and yard, painted the roof of the house as well as the inside walls. The new windows and doors were also installed.
Marketing Manager for Lebowa Funerals, George Sethosa said one of their objectives was to better the lives of community members and their immediate environment. “We are a community based company and we operate in various communities. We were told about the family and their plight was highlighted to us. We came to do our own evaluation and assessment. We found 26 people in a four roomed house. They were using the sitting room and the kitchen as bedrooms as well. The living conditions were inhumane and it was sad to see that kind of a setup.
“We took it upon ourselves to help them because they reside in the area that we operate in. We hope the little we gave them will give them hope and a sense of profoundness. We are willing to employ them at our company and help them with any basic needs,” Sethosa said.
Lebowa Funerals has been serving the community at large with excellence and professionalism since 1976. Their dedicated personnel of over 150 permanent members make sure that people’s traditions live on.
The company boasts 18 branches situated in Limpopo and Gauteng provinces respectively. “We do not only serve families and societies with the utmost compassion and respect in their time of grief but we also serve those in need. We donate school shoes and uniform to the less privilege learners in Seshego and surrounds on an annual basis,” Sethosa explained.
A resident of the house, Jackinah Selona, a 34-year-old an unemployed mother of four, said the gesture by Lebowa Funerals would improve their living conditions. “We never thought that God would one day answer our prayers. I had my first born at the age of 15 and I dropped out of school the following year due internal family conflicts which affected me mentally and emotionally. I never went back to complete all my grades. I left school after Grade 6 because I had to take care of all my babies. All my life I have never had proper shelter or a conducive living environment. I used to share a dilapidated room with them and it was no good at all. The revamped house will give us a sense of belonging,” Selona said.
Kwena Selona who also resides at the house with her three children, promised Lebowa Funerals that they would take care of revamped and refurbished house. “We still cannot find words to thank them. They could have taken their resources elsewhere but they chose us. We were the laughing stock of the community. Many community members were making jokes about our home and it was painful. They called it the dirty house, they used it to direct people when they were looking for directions to different places in Zone 2 because it is situated next to the main schools in Seshego that is Bokamoso and Masedibu. I remember one day someone came to our house and said he was looking for Bokamoso School. The person told us that he had been directed to the dirty house because it was close to the school,” Selona recalled.
We just want to say thank you to Lebowa Funerals and may they continue uplifting and touching the lives of the less fortunate and those who cannot help themselves,” she remarked.

Story and photos: Herbert Rachuene
>>herbert.observer@gmail.com