Page 36 - Rural Voice III - Responding to a Pandemic
P. 36

 “I always
said I’m not going to die of Corona, but I’m going to die
of exhaustion, because it created a lot of work.”
Training workshops
R 5693
Grant given for data and connectivity
R 1788
projecTs and programmes in response To The covid-19 pandemic
We were involved in the monitoring of SASSA grants and the disaster relief grant in the Uitenhage district. I also helped Zimbabweans who live in our district to apply for relief grants. We started a WhatsApp group to assist with their applications. People were sending messages from Joburg, Cape Town and Durban, and I would make the applications. I arranged the payments with a post office in Uitenhage.
We also handed out food parcels monthly to informal settlements, such as Moegesukkel and Colchester. The contents of the food parcels depended on what discounts we were able to negotiate, and included flour, rice, mealie meal, sugar and potatoes. We also received money from Freedom House, to provide 50 households with sanitiser and masks. We handed out 200 masks every month. The Nelson Mandela University Innovation Lab gave us 231 litres of sanitiser as a donation, so we made 115 bottles of 2 litre sanitiser, for distribution to families in Moegesukkel.
supporT neTworks during covid-19
We were assisted by the South African National Civic Organisation [SANCO], who helped distribute the food parcels and sanitisers. We worked with Share and Rape Crisis for our gender-based violence support and counselling work. Ikala Trust also gave us food parcels, bought soup and soya, and gave us clothing to distribute. They are a conduit for the money from Nelson Mandela University, so with the Moegesukkel Community Foundation and Khayamandi Service Centre.
SCAT gave us funding and increased our core grant during this period. They also gave us moral support. All the staff of SCAT are available to give advice. During COVID-19, they gave us laptops, phones, mobile network data and a dongle, which helped us to stay connected and do research.
lessons from working during The covid-19 pandemic
What we’ve learnt is that we need to work together to have more impact. We would never have achieved what we did without SANCO providing volunteers. I think working with the community also taught me that we must thank God for what we have and we must raise our arms to help others in the community. I think we need to be flexible, because Corona took us away from doing workshops and we have to think on our feet during disasters. We need each other and relationships are important.
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RURAL VOICE III: RESPONDING TO A PANDEMIC


















































































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