Residents assist other communities through Community Action Network

Nearly every week for the last 16 months food parcels and nutritious sandwiches have been delivered to the people of Kliptown in Soweto.

This follows a pledge by residents in Melrose North and Birdhaven at the beginning of lockdown in April last year.
Using the suburbs’ WhatsApp groups, a communication network was set up to raise donations and food collections to support the community of Kliptown.

Melrose North and Birdhaven Community Action Network (Can), under the auspices of the Angel Network, was the brainchild of Howard Sackstein and Ricci Lyons who saw a need to help other communities.

As the initiative grew stronger, residents expanded their assistance in their communities. They encourage each other to support small businesses in the area, help find missing pets and clean up their neighbourhood. “We have seen incredible support from the Melrose North and Birdhaven communities with donations of food and cash,” said Lyons.

One of the residents, Lisa Lowenthal, said when chaos and looting started a few weeks ago, many residents were encouraged to support the Baker Brothers, a small bakery in Norwood, by ordering from a delicious array of bread items.

The initiative continues to grow with volunteers increasingly getting involved in the Community Policing Forum (CPF) in the Norwood precinct.

Volunteers recently organised gratitude donations and bought bread from the Baker Brothers bakery for the members of Norwood Police Station and volunteer patrollers in the precinct. “This was done as a way of supporting the protectors as well as small businesses in the area,” said Lowenthal.

“King David Linksfield High School also came on board encouraging residents to participate in their online virtual challah bake. Challah breads were donated to the police station.”