Page 14 - Rural Voice III - Responding to a Pandemic

nokuphumla moniCa tyalimpi
“There are older people who live alone, but during this pandemic they received assistance from their neighbours and families.”
COVID-19 RESTORED THE
CARING MODE IN OUR COMMUNITY
monica Tyalimpi, coordinaTor of The dordrechT legal advice and communiTy developmenT agency, reflecTs on how people came TogeTher To help each oTher during The pandemic
Most people in Dordrecht live and work on farms. We are surrounded by 166 wheat, sheep, goat and cattle farms. Our advice office deals with evictions, unfair dismissals, and delays in payments. When we had level 5 lockdown, some of the workers were paid, others were not. We referred them to the Department of Labour, about 73 kilometres away, to check that their employers had registered them, so they could receive the state of disaster social grant from SASSA. Eventually, as the lockdown levels went down, most workers were hired back.
how The pandemic impacTed The work of dordrechT legal advice and communiTy developmenT agency
COVID-19 affected our community badly, because most of the people were living at home without any kind of food, and many of them relied on child support grants for survival over all these months. Many people, about 20% of the population, became sick. Our hospital is small, so the people had to be referred to Queenstown. When they arrived in Queenstown, there was not enough space to accommodate all the patients. The younger working people who returned here from the big cities like Cape Town, Johannesburg
DORDRECHT ADVICE OFFICE
The Dordrecht Advice Office was established in 1989 to assist farmworkers who faced unfair dismissals, unlawful evictions and wage disputes. Since then, it has become involved with economic empowerment, community development, human rights education, women empowerment, and youth development.
DISTRICT: Chris Hani District Municipality
COVID-19 CASES: From March to the end of October 2020, there were 9,696 cases of COVID-19 reported in the Chris Hani District Municipality of the Eastern Cape. There were 441 fatalities.
DIRECTOR: Nokuphumla Monica Tyalimpi
NUMBER OF STAFF: 3, NUMBER OF VOLUNTEERS: 2
BOARD CHAIR: Dumisani Kwela
BOARD MEMBERS: Lindiwe Buyeye (Deputy Chairperson); Thuliswa Nopoto (Secretary); Lindelwa Roro (Deputy Secretary); Thembani Maki (Treasurer); Nokuthula Dyantyi (Fundraiser)
ADDRESS: 3 Kip Street, Dordrecht, 5435
PHONE: 045 943 1015, EMAIL: dordreghtlegal@gmail.com
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RURAL VOICE III: RESPONDING TO A PANDEMIC