Cape Town - As Cape Town experiences stinging cold fronts, Good Hope FM’s Keep Cape Town Warm campaign for 2022 calls for blankets and non-perishable food for those in need.
Given that Capetonians have actively supported the campaign for the past 13 years, donating thousands of blankets and tons of food to one of Mother City’s largest winter outreach efforts, this year’s campaign will run through June, in collaboration with the station’s valued partner, Community Chest.
Following the recent floods, spokesperson for Community Chest, Eltena Rethman, said that the recent floods put an enormous strain on the NGOs, as the community’s reliance on support services, food, and resources increased.
“The recent floods in large parts of our country are really devastating and have affected many lives in more ways than one. The heavy rain in Cape Town is causing significant damage, especially in areas where drainage on roads is not cleared and drains are overflowing. We are calling on Capetonians to be proactive rather than reactive and that’s why we are doing this campaign, appealing to the public to help those less fortunate.
“Besides the huge tangible loss and the destruction of homes and loss of belongings, the victims of these floods and heavy rainfalls suffer immense trauma and the sense of displacement associated with these natural disasters is overwhelmingly stressful. Many families are displaced and family members are still unaccounted for in the flooded areas of our country. These natural disasters place great pressure on the NGO Sector as their workload automatically increases as the community relies on them for support services, food, and resources to aid humanitarian relief during disasters.
“The Community Chest is inundated with requests for help. Not just from NGOs or beneficiary organisations but also from individual community members via our social media platforms.
“Campaigns like Good Hope FM’s Keep Cape Town Warm helps to raise awareness but, most importantly, makes appeal and drives support from the broader community,” said Rethman.
Speaking on the importance of reach and the impact one wants to make, Programme Manager at Good Hope FM, Gerard Muller, said that given these dire times, one should consider if the unfamiliar faces of the person seeking shelter had been someone close.
“As the winter chill approaches, the question we need to ask ourselves is how much we would do – and how our giving would change – if the unfamiliar faces and shadows we so often see looking for shelter were someone we know. Our grandmother or grandfather, our mom, and dad, our brother, sister, or close friend.
“The fact is that every person in need is someone’s family, not just some anonymous shell. Someone who deserves compassionate care. Someone who, without the necessary warmth and food, may very well not survive the winter cold if we don’t reach out. This is the fire in our motivation for this campaign and we know that Capetonians will once again rally behind it with all they’ve got,” said Muller.
For this year’s Good Hope FM Keep Cape Town Warm campaign, there are various ways in which the public can help:
- Dropping off new or clean-washed, neat 2nd hand blankets and non-perishable food at the Good Hope FM Studios, located at 209 Beach Road, Sea Point.
- Dropping off blankets and non-perishable food at one of the station’s live broadcasts and drive-through collection points.
Given this, Rethman added that he hopes the campaign can mobilise the broader communities, corporates, and those who are able to become active citizens.
“We sincerely hope that the public will be able to support us as we make a request for in-kind donations in the form of non-perishable food products and blankets to assist those affected by the cold weather and heavy rain. We are also appealing to the public to open their hearts and their pockets by donating financially via our online platforms on our website (www.comchest.org.za).
“They can donate via our DONATE button, EFT or snapscan – select the drop-down KeepCapeTownWarm. They can also drop off non-perishable food and blankets at various Good Hope FM outside broadcasts listed here,” said Rethman.