Residents of Val de Vie Estate, its Evergreen Retirement Village as well as Pearl Valley Estate worked tirelessly over the weekend to sort out and pack approximately 26 000 baby items that will be donated to underprivileged communities.
This was all in support of the charity organisation, Heart NPO which, last year, received a huge donation from a national clothing distributor.
With this donation, one of the biggest ever of it’s kind received by a local charity, R10 million worth of brand-new clothing, bedding, toiletries and other accessories was received by Heart NPO.
This came after a national retailer had fallen victim to the massive vandalism and looting that took place in the wake of the 2021 riots.
Mandie Erasmus of Heart NPO said she cannot put into words the effect of this huge donation and the number of needy people it has already helped and will still help.
It however did not come without challenges, as the company informed Mandie that Heart NPO would be receiving 2 600 large boxes filled with brand new goods.
And since the first boxes started rolling in, the project required an almost 24/7 logistical operation; they need to be transported from the Cape Town area to Paarl, and storage facilities had to be found for sorting, packing and shipment, and so on.
Erasmus says Heart has only seven full-time volunteers, and although extremely grateful, this has been a very challenging process. And this is just the beginning. Boxes are being consigned almost daily to the organisation.
Fortunately Samaritans from across the valley started to assist, such as KaapAgri Wellington who immediately climbed on board with storage space and transportation.
And as soon as certain wares had been sorted, the distributution of this was done to the needy: Bras were distributed to young and old woman, some who have never been able to afford them; earlier this year hundreds of schoolchildren received brand new school uniform kits, including shoes, satchels and stationary, while the elderly residents of Rusthof Home received toiletries and pyjamas.
Mandie said for the past four months she and her small team, together with volunteers who intermittently help, have been working tirelessly to sort and pack and distribute.
She said that recently one of their long time supporters, Steph Brits, approached the Val de Vie Foundation and asked if they would be willing to make space available at Val de Vie for this purpose together with four days of sorting and packaging with assistance from Val de Vie residents.
The results were phenomenal, said Mandie.
“We originally estimated that there are only still 300 black bags full of baby items. When everything was moved to Val de Vies’ banquet hall we realised it was more than 400 bags.
“Val de Vie residents came to volunteer throughout the weekend and Monday and because of this, we ended up completing the baby-project earlier than planned, completely done! Something our own staff would take weeks to do.
“Thank you Val de Vie, you made a huge difference.”
So far more than 7 000 people have benefited from the donation and hundreds of projects will still benefit it, which means hundreds, if not thousands, of needy Paarl residents stand to benefit from it. Mandie says that this donation has now become known as: The gift that keeps on giving.
