Johannesburg – Gift of the Givers will on Wednesday donate more than R2 million in medical aid to the drought stricken community of Aberdeen in the Eastern Cape.
The humanitarian aid organisation is also donating over 475 food parcels and hygiene packs to farmers and farm workers in the area.
Gift of the Givers (GOTG) founder Dr Imtiaz Sooliman said it would also be drilling boreholes at hospitals to assist the drought stricken community source water.
Sooliman said the Mthatha pharmacy depot would receive R2m worth of medicines to support the health department, and he promised more medicines would be donated.
“In addition, 30 hospitals will send vehicles from up to six hours away to Graaff-Reinet on Thursday, September 23, to collect bulk food and hygiene items, linen savers, adult and baby diapers for patients, and PPE's, pulse oximeters and non-contact thermometers for medical staff,” he said.
GOTG has been assisting the various communities in the Eastern Cape in the last year as the Coronavirus pandemic compounded the dire situation in the province.
In December last year, it donated more than 900 oxygen machines to hospitals in the Eastern Cape, leaving hospital executives relieved and ecstatic.
It also converted an unused wing at Makhanda’s (Grahamstown) Settlers Hospital into a 20-bed Covid-19 isolation facility.
The hospital was equipped with oxygen points and high-care isolation facilities.
In February GOTG assisted the struggling Adelaide community in the Amathole District, facilitating six more boreholes and 400 food parcels.
The area of Adelaide has been drought stricken since 2017, while poor infrastructure had left the area without water since 2014, it said.
“The desperation in the farming community is heart rendering in the face of an unending drought. Government budget cuts, Covid-19, job losses and a lack of rainfall has exacerbated the challenges in the province.
“On Wednesday food parcels and hygiene packs will be provided to 475 farmers and their workers from Aberdeen at our logistics centre in Graaff-Reinet,” he said.
On the boreholes, Sooliman said the organisation had visited several hospitals in the province to determine which facilities needed infrastructure upgrades.
“Government departments and communities welcome our intervention in these tough times, given the increasing financial crisis facing all sectors of South African society.
“Our teams are actively at work currently preparing all the supplies for these interventions,” he said.
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