Solidarity Fund provides flood relief in Ugu
It was reported that over 440 people lost their lives and more than 600 schools and 320 000 pupils were affected by the April floods.
Gamalakhe and Margate benefitted from a partnership between SA Harvest NPC and the Solidarity Fund of South Africa which donated over 343 000kg of food to flood-ravaged areas.
Other towns such as Durban and Richards Bay also benefitted from the partnership which provided 4 764 families with food to sustain a family of six for two months.
The Solidarity Fund Executive Head for Humanitarian Support, Behaviour Change and Floods Response, Wendy Tlou, said the relief project took place throughout July into the first week of August and was initiated in response to the devastating floods in April that destroyed homes, roads and infrastructure, cutting residents off from basic services such as water and access to food.
Tlou said it was reported that over 440 people lost their lives and more than 600 schools and 320 000 pupils were affected.
She added that the Solidarity Fund granted SA Harvest R5 million to assist displaced families Port Shepstone, Richards Bay and eThekwini.
“The floods that affected Kwa-Zulu Natal and the Eastern Cape will inevitably have a long-term, devastating impact on the communities and individuals affected and required urgent and meaningful action. The Solidarity Fund shares the anxieties of those affected and selected to work alongside organisations such a SA Harvest who were already providing support services to communities in the province. The partnership provides the assurance that the funding allocated in response to the devastation reaches the intended recipients in an impactful and effective manner,” said Tlou.
Chief operating officer of SA Harvest and manager of the project, Ozzy Nel said to ensure that they met the expectations of the Solidarity Fund in providing evidence of delivery to targeted beneficiaries, their tech team developed a mobile app that enabled them to record the details of the heads of households to whom the parcels were delivered.
Nel said the technology was a significant benchmark for future monitoring and evaluation of projects involving grant funding, both for SA Harvest and the Solidarity Fund.
“It allows for a complete traceability of the food, from its point of origin to the recipient. This level of traceability has never been undertaken before. This was a massive logistical undertaking for our operations team in Durban. Our normal operational model involves rescuing food from across the food supply chain and delivering it to vetted beneficiary organisations who turn the food into meals for those in need in their communities. This project involved far more direct, face-to-face contact with the recipients of the food, with each person’s details being recorded in the app,” said Nel.
Meanwhile, Lindsay Hopkins, SA Harvest’s KZN operations manager said: “Although logistically extremely challenging, the impact of this initiative is significant. We managed to get to areas that have never received assistance, where the people thought they had been forgotten, extending our reach to over 300km from our warehouse. Many of the people we reached were child-headed households and we were overwhelmed by the sentiment of people wanting to help themselves. Systemic intervention to assist people to create sustainable ways to feed themselves is desperately needed. It is in this aspect of SA Harvest’s mission to end hunger that a meaningful change can be effected.”
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