Donations sent to Somalia

Drought-stricken Somalia will receive tons of food aid donated by the City and its employees to the relief organisation Gift of the Givers.
TONS of non-perishable food donated by the City’s employees to help victims of the drought in Somalia were handed over to the Gift of the Givers (GOTG), the charitable organisation, on Wednesday, 14 December.

Nonceba Molwele the member of the mayoral committee for health and social development, thanks the City's employees for their donationsMember of the mayoral committee Nonceba Molwele thanks the City's employees for their donationsThe handover, which was made at the Metropolitan Centre in Braamfontein, was attended by the member of the mayoral committee for health and social development, Nonceba Molwele, city officials and representatives from GOTG.

Molwele handed over boxes of non-perishable food filled with porridge, tinned food, baked beans and sardines, among other items. She said the donation was a response by the City’s leadership to help fellow Africans.

“What is happening in Somalia is our problem,” said Molwele. “We hope that the situation will become better as anticipated.”
She also emphasised the importance of continuous support of Somalia.

GOTG’s project manager, Rhodiah Abrahams, thanked the City for its donations, adding that the group would transport the supplies to Mogadishu in a few weeks’ time. “We [feed] about 47 000 people twice a day and the sad part is that they are still lots of people dying,” she said.

The Gift of the Givers is the largest disaster relief organisation in Africa. It has delivered more than R450-million in aid to 32 countries around the world, including South Africa.

Abrahams also recounted horrific stories of children abandoned by parents as they moved around the country in search of food and water. South Africa had done so much by giving donations in the form of money and food, but more was still needed, she said.

Despite threats from the Al Shabaab, Abrahams said her organisation was one of the few that was able to move freely in Somalia without harassment.

“Gift of the Givers (GOTG) is the largest NGO operational in Mogadishu presently. We have excellent relationships with the transitional federal government and several of the Somali clans and the elders.”

It recently opened an orphanage near the airport in Mogadishu and feeds 3 000 orphans daily.

Al Shabaab is an Islamist terrorist organisation that is preventing aid groups from helping nearly three million people living under its control. The drought in Somalia has killed about 29 000 children under the age of five and left 12 million people on the brink of starvation since 2010.

It has added to troubles already plaguing the country as a result of its 20-year-long civil war.