Gift of the Givers volunteers and learners from Rondebosch Boys’ High School joined forces at Masifunde Primary School in Lwandle on Thursday 25 June to distribute 250 food parcels and winter beanies to families affected by recent storms.

The parcels were handed over mostly to elderly residents, with the beanies distributed to children to help ward off the bitter winter cold.

Lwandle’s informal settlements were among the communities hardest hit when a level-8 storm tore through the Helderberg in May, impacting hundreds of residents (“Basin takes devastating battering“, DistrictMail & Helderberg Gazette, 11 May).

The humanitarian organisation has remained on the ground throughout, with deployed teams assisting close to 150 000 affected residents across the Cape Metro.

“The informal settlements in Lwandle were among the hardest-hit, with hundreds of residents severely impacted,” said Ali Sablay, project manager in the Western Cape.

In a heartwarming end to the day the Rondebosch learners swapped relief work for the football field, taking on a local Lwandle school team in a footballmatch organised by Ward 86 councillor Xolani Diniso, a fitting reminder that community upliftment extends beyond the distribution of goods.