Christmas is time for celebration! Families and relatives travel long distances to be with their loved ones. For some they had not seen each other for months and even years. Reconciliation is a goal for some, and for others, long chats throughout the nights does it. Why should we deprive the less privileged such an amazing priceless gift?

Menzi ( 15), Ntuthuko (14), Gift (8) and Thabiso (2) are siblings. Their father(s) is unknown and their mother abandoned them in October 2007 when she left for Johannesburg to look for work and never came back. When she left them, Menzi as the oldest sibling took care of his younger siblings for six months with the hope that their mother was coming back as she used to go to Johannesburg for few weeks and come back. When he realised she was not coming back, she approached her mother’s friend Ms Ngcamu for help.

The three older children were admitted into a children’s home, and the younger one was fostered by Ms Ngcamu. During school holidays they visit their baby brother and his foster mother. During their visit, the children’s home give them food parcels that consist of 2.5kg maize meal, 1kg rice, 1kg beans, 1kg sugar and salt and tea bags for each child. This is clearly not enough for a short stay over holidays since the foster mother is unemployed and can not make ends meet to take care of all the children in the household. During the telephonic discussion with the children’s home social worker, she also stressed out the importance of this visit and how much their resource constrains is going to undermine these arrangements.

It has been suggested that if the foster mother can not meet the children’s basic needs during holidays, there is no option but to terminate the visiting arrangements for the three children. We appealing to anyone who is willing to make these children’s Christmas an unforgettable one by donating food parcels to this household. Please  contact Thandanani’s social worker on our office number, cellphone 082 9073 826 or email by clicking here.

The children received food parcels from the East Coast (Radio) Toy Story 2008. Thank you all for your response and prayers for these needy children.