We’d like to let you know what we’ve been up to over the last few weeks, and how we’ve been able to use the time and resources donated by ObsCAN and others to alleviate some of the difficulty in Mfuleni.
This is what we’ve achieved so far as a partnership team (Obs and Mfuleni members together):
💸 Vouchers we’re still distributing vouchers daily, and have now reached 470 (that’s R47 000 of food distributed directly to Mfuleni residents). The system is working well now and we’re getting great feedback. We hope to raise more funds and make it to 1000!
🍚 Soup Kitchens we were approached to help distribute some funds raised for the Mfuleni community by I’m Staying. With the help of Mfuleni CAN we identified soup kitchens and send a total of 400kg of food plus hand soap to two soup kitchens (total value R10 000).
📱Data sponsorship with the help of ObsCAN, we were able to connect certain Mfuleni CAN members with some sponsorship for data to keep them connected!
👶 Baby food Naomi had a donation of baby food which was delivered to a soup kitchen and a childrens’ home in Mfuleni. This was really appreciated!
📚 NaliBali educational materials NaliBali is an NGO that seeks to encourage a love of reading in children. Some educational materials were donated by them and delivered to Mfuleni for distribution. This will really help parents with young children at home, and came in isiXhosa and English.
📜 Posters A first round of posters was printed by ObsCAN members a while ago, and these were put up around the community. A second wave is expected to go to Mfuleni on the 15th June, targetted at shared facilities in informal settlements, as well as spaza shops.
📍Mapping group a sub group of the Mfuleni CAN that also happened to be on a career development programme and formed a team and looked at ways to collect useful information about Mfuleni – mapping out Mfuleni as a system. They have connected with community leaders, reached out to community members and started to take note of their own observations. They have hit quite a few stumbling blocks, namely sceptical leadership, but they are still looking at ways to uplift the community.
💡Whatsapp group We will soon launch a whatsapp group that makes use of the connections established during voucher distribution to share useful, fact-checked information with Mfuleni residents. This is a collaborative effort between ObsCAN and MfuleniCAN, and we hope to connect with a lot of people this way. Feedback will come from the community about what kind of information is needed, and the daily posts will serve as ‘virtual posters’.
Thank you to everyone who has helped us build a strong partnership, and who has leant a hand to Mfuleni in this difficult time.
The ObsCAN Partnership Team
Grace, Anna, Andile, Anni, Tyrone, Rike, Edwin, Rachelle and Jess.