Our efforts to serve Masiphumelele during the COVID-19 pandemic

The entire world has been scrambling to find a way to survive while trying to get through the Corona pandemic. We are all quite astonished by how much has changed but remain hopeful for the best outcome. Through all of that our priority has still been to serve the community of Masiphumelele in any way that we can.

When the first cases hit South Africa, we had to make the decision in line with our Government to close the Masicorp education programmes in order to protect the lives of our staff and beneficiaries. It was a decision that came hard for us because providing education from cradle to career has always been Masicorp’s sole mandate.

From the announcement of imminent lockdown, we were able to work with our Masicorp Community Liaison person, Yandiswa Mazwana of The Masiphumelele Creative Hub. This amazing woman coordinated the Valley Safety Pack Campaign, forming a group to coordinate the purchase and distribution of hygiene packs and information flyers, before lockdown came into effect, providing 600 of these packs to the families at our Educare Centres and informal crèches.  We have also, along with other groups, assisted Yandiswa with her ongoing feeding programme which is daily providing food to children in Masiphumelele during the lockdown.

With children out of schools and creches and without the Feeding Scheme Support that they get during term-time, we realized that we would need to make sure that the children and their families do not go hungry. Fortunately, we were issued a permit from the Department of Social Development to provide food packs and vouchers to all these vulnerable families. Each food pack includes a book from our wonderful partners at Book Dash. We believe that it is as important to feed our children knowledge and education as it is to feed them with nutritious food.

As we all know, the lockdown resulted in the forced closure of businesses depriving many people of their erstwhile income, leaving the community of Masi more vulnerable than it has ever been in the past.  At Masicorp, our biggest priority has been to make sure that the families of our ECD (Early Childhood Development) projects are able to receive adequate access to hygiene packs and food during this time.  The need is growing by the day!

If you would like to give towards our feeding programme so that we can provide support to our ECD families, please click here>> https://www.masicorp.org/covid-19-updates/. We would like to thank everyone for their support during this time, we would not be able to do what we do without you efforts.