Hospital patients and their families can rest a little easier today after receiving an ubuntu bucket from Healthcare Workers 4 Palestine (HCW4P) and Gift of the Givers (GOTG).
Launched in July, the organisations partnered for the humanitarian campaign, Ubuntu Bucket Drive, aimed to supply monthly care packages to patients at regional hospitals across South Africa.
On Wednesday, HCW4P SA and GOTG teams visited Paarl and New Somerset hospitals, to hand out the buckets, which consists of nutritious non-perishable food items and hygiene products, able to feed and sustain a family of four for an entire month.
Forty buckets were distributed between the two hospitals, with buckets to be provided every month for an entire year.
HCW4P SA Western Cape events chair Dr Samah El-Boraei who has worked at both hospitals, said patients and their families often have to travel far, using public transport or even hitch-hiking, while faced with high unemployment rates and food insecurity.
“New Somerset Hospital sees a lot of severely malnourished children and you can imagine for every child who is malnourished, there's a family that's even more malnourished.”
GOTG founder Dr Imtiaz Sooliman said hunger in the country was increasing.
The disaster relief organisation supports small community organisations, and has set up 175 feeding centres across the country, and which is growing, empowering community members to run the centres.
“In terms of hunger, it's been very marked. And we’re picking it up during disasters. In the last two to three years, when we go on site, people normally ask for building kits, now they're asking for food.”
Contributions for the Ubuntu Bucket Drive can be made via BackaBuddy (Ubuntu Bucket Drive) https://www.backabuddy.co.za/campaign/ubuntu-bucket-drive~2.