Machubeni – Emalahleni
Boomplas Community Hall was the hive of activity recently when various government departments and other sectors gathered to give services to the people. The programme was as a result of the community survey which was done where the area was identified as having a number of social ills coupled with poverty and malnutrition which affects mainly children.
District Director of the Department of Social Development Mr Tsepo Solani outlined the purpose of the day. Said Solani, “The Department collaborated with National Development Agency, South African Social Security Agency, Department of Health, Emalahleni Local Municipality and other government departments with the aim of looking out after the needy and less fortunate households with the aim of fighting poverty that is leading to high mortality rate amongst children around Chris Hani District Municipality.
Said Solani, “We also get statistics from Frontier Hospital, where the Department of Health identify hotspot areas and share the statistics with us.
“One of the reasons of high mortality rate is because of mothers who do not get tested for HIV/AIDS and take their treatment, alcohol abuse and mismanagement of grant by the parents is also the cause of children to suffer from hunger”.
Government Departments did reports on the services they rendered during the Programme ,SASSA targeted Children at the age of 5-6 years especially those kids who do not have birth certificates. this was meant to enable the kids to access Child Support grant.
The Department of Social Development was represented by Mrs Khuthala Prusent who highlighted that through community dialogues they have learnt that young people from the area are involved in Alcohol abuse and others participate in many incidents of juvenile delinquency, amongst the notable challenges is high unemployment rate and Mismanagement of grants.
Ms Nobahle Mjamba, a Manager at the Department of Rural Development and Agrarian Reforms said they have 11 households to benefit on the production inputs meant to support home food production. She told The Messenger that the department has employed 11 laborers to renovate the local Deeping tank and that there are other job opportunities that people will benefit from including fencing in this village.
In her heartwarming address at the event, the Sub-district Manager at the Department of Health Ms Thami Katiya focused on awareness on Women related health care services, encouraging women get tested for Breast Cancer and men for Prostate Cancer. A mobile clinic was on standby to assist the community with services including Family planning for young girls, HIV tests and everything else they needed clarity on.
Said Katiya, “Today we are here to bring services to the people as we have this programme during Women’s month. “It is a great opportunity to be rendering services in this fashion for Women and Children. As government it is our duty to make sure that people get these services because we know that it is costing our people to travel from their villages to the offices in town.”
Emalahleni Mayor Councillor Nontombizanele Koni who was in her usual element also witnessed the proceedings. She told The Messenger, “We appreciate and embrace programmes of this kind and wish that it can be rolled out to all our villages far away from where offices are situated.”
Body warmers and Nutritional porridge were handed over to the beneficiaries by the Department of Health,
