Page 18 - Rural Voice III - Responding to a Pandemic

Flagstaff food distribution
Food parcels distributed
172
COVID grant funding given to LDA’s
R 50 000
PPE distributed
4870
people were injured by the SANDF officers. I remember seeing a young man being beaten up by SANDF soldiers for just walking around the streets. Women were just walking around their locality when the SANDF soldiers beat them. As an organisation, we were alerted of many gender-based violence cases. In some cases, when women lost their jobs, their husbands and boyfriends who had jobs refused to provide for them and their children, abusing them physically and emotionally.
how The pandemic impacTed The work of The flagsTaff communiTy advice cenTre in The communiTy
The pandemic affected us, because we completely shut down the organisation, stopping activities during level 5. We started to work again at level 4, creating a WhatsApp line which allowed community members to seek help. Some clients managed to use the number that we provided. Others came to our office, which was closed, so they were not able to be assisted. The WhatsApp line number was shared on Nkonjani Community Radio. We had a regular radio slot awareness campaign about COVID-19, explaining precautionary measures and the difference between quarantine and isolation. During the radio slots, people were able to ask questions, which we answered.
projecTs and programmes in response To The covid-19 pandemic
We registered with the magistrate as an essential service, so we could deliver food parcels to families with the assistance of traditional leaders, who helped identify the neediest in communities. The Solidarity Fund and Open Society Foundation for South Africa [OSF-SA] supplied food parcels and resources for food security programmes. We distributed food hampers, and spinach and cabbage seeds and seedlings, for the women to grow vegetable gardens.
We bought food parcels and seedlings with the money we received from SCAT. The Solidarity Fund brought us 6,400 food hampers to distribute. The hampers contained tinned food, including beans and fish, as well as rice, sugar, peanut butter, mealie meal and fish oil. We provided seedlings to women who are already in a women empowerment programme, who we trained in agricultural skills as part of our food security programme – a community development approach. These women are planting vegetable gardens, and doing sewing and poultry management.
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RURAL VOICE III: RESPONDING TO A PANDEMIC