MEC Scott reaches out to the vulnerable children at Cool Air and poor community at Jika Joe Informal Settlement in Mgungundlovu District
Poor and vulnerable children of Cool Air Crèche, near New Hanover have been the latest beneficiaries of the generous donation today by the MEC for Finance in KwaZulu-Natal, Belinda Scott, who is also the Political Champion of uMgungundlovu District.
The children, most of whose parents work on the nearby farms, come from the surrounding informal settlement that lacks the necessary amenities. The objective of the visit was to make donations which include a fridge, cooking stove, 40 mattresses and 40 blankets, cooking pots and FutureLife porridge.
The Crèche Manager, Nomusa Thusi, said when they met MEC Scott in August last year, they told her of their plight and all the items they had mentioned to her were delivered to the crèche.
“We were really struggling, we did not know what to do to ensure we have all the things we needed to run the crèche properly. MEC Scott has wiped our tears and we can now focus on bringing up these children the correct way at this crèche,” she said.
MEC Scott moved from Cool Air to the Jika Joe Informal settlement in Pietermaritzburg where she interacted with poor families. After listening to challenges that include lack of decent housing, electricity, clean drinking water and other social ills, MEC Scott donated 350 blankets to various poverty-stricken households.
Speaking during her visit, MEC Scott said “Our policy is that we need to uplift our communities by assisting them in many ways to address their plight. We do this by making the necessary donations to improve their lives.
We work together with the Department of Social Development to identify the needy communities or non-profit organisations so that we can assist them. The children are our future and it is our responsibility to care for them as best as we can. This is service delivery which we also want to ensure that it continues to cascade down to poor and deserving communities,” she said.
MEC Scott will be going back to the Jika Joe Informal settlement on Friday to address more of the socio-economic challenges and also to distribute the FutureLife porridge to many deserving families. This is part of her signature outreach programme which has benefitted many NPOs, Co-Operatives and households in the province.
Enquiries
Sibonelo Msomi
Cell: 072 587 1947
Musa Cebisa
Cell: 071 6878 777
