Humanitarian organisation Gift of the Givers has shifted its focus to save ostriches, the export market and seriously needed foreign earnings in drought-ridden Oudtshoorn.
Nine trucks of fodder were due to be delivered today to 300 anxious farmers in dire straits in that area.
“Farmers losing farms that have been in their possessions for decades, farmworkers who lived and worked on these farms through those decades losing their jobs and livelihoods, animals (the means of income) dying in large numbers, abattoirs closing down, increased indebtedness of entire communities, diminishing hope and broken souls.
“This picture is all too familiar to Gift of the Givers over the past year,” said the organisation’s founder, Dr Imtiaz Sooliman.
Sooliman said the efforts to save farms, animals and the livelihoods of farmers - both established and emerging - farmworkers and those in related industries would continue relentlessly.
The organisation said its drought interventions for communities in dire need in the Northern Cape, Western Cape and recently in Eastern Cape had exceeded R100 million.
The organisation has been striving since August last year to save communities by delivering fodder, saving animals, drilling boreholes, establishing filtration systems, supporting feeding schemes, distributing stationery and, above all, instilling hope in communities who for all intents and purposes have been suffering in silence since 2015.
“We thank all South Africans who have made this possible and who continue to support our efforts. It would make a huge difference if the government came in as a partner to assist all the decisive initiatives.
“Together we could boost agriculture, save jobs, create additional jobs and increase agriculture’s contribution to the GDP as a means to lift us out of the technical recession,” Sooliman said.