Reea thankful for community support

The Reea Foundation in Craighall Park thanks community members for their ongoing support during a tough year.

The NPO maintains a residential facility for adults living with epilepsy and associated illnesses.

Reea manager Alex Sheffield said that the entire lockdown process had been straining for the NPO with staff living on the property for 14 days at a time, having to reassign and reconfigure the facility to accommodate quarantine and isolation wards as well as living quarters for staff. Sourcing of appropriate PPE at a great expense for all staff, reducing income and increasing operating expenses has been incredibly difficult.

Sheffield said that the foundation is thankful to have survived the pandemic without any loss of life, despite the recording of positive cases.

“We are eternally grateful for the response and personal sacrifice given by all staff during Level 5 through 1 in order to continue the essential services to beneficiaries,” said Sheffield.

He is thankful for the response from the Department of Social Development who has assisted wherever possible during the unprecedented and unpredictable times. He also thanked the Parkhurst and Randburg clinics for their continued support and education sessions on the pandemic.

The foundation extended their thanks to donors and members of the public who assisted with food parcels and made special mention of Pirates Sports Club, Parkkruin Familiekerk and the Muslim Association for their generous donations of food parcels and sanitisers.

Sheffield said that the Reea hostel will continue to operate as normal this festive season with higher numbers of beneficiaries remaining due to the Covid-19 situation.

“Our main aim for 2021 is to return to some form of normality and not become complacent whilst trying to recover REEA both financially and psychologically from the pandemic.”

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