Help is starting to pour into a children’s home starved of government funds and food.
Members of the community and Shoprite Eastern Cape have donated food to the King William’s Town Child and Youth Care Centre.
Earlier this week the Dispatch reported on the plight of the children at the centre, some only three-month-old infants, going to bed on empty stomachs due to erratic payments by the Eastern Cape government.
The facility, the province’s oldest child centre, is home to 104 vulnerable children from three months old to 18.
The centre’s director, Nomsa Mandoyi, said the provincial government had failed to transfer the children’s allowances on time since the beginning of this year.
On Monday, the Dispatch went to the centre and saw that the food cupboards were bare.
Mandoyi said help started to pour in soon after the article was published, with people from King William’s Town and East London arriving at their door with food.
“The MEC for social development, Nancy Sihlwayi, also brought food,” she said.
Shoprite EC public relations officer Esmeralda Essex said the provincial office sprang into action immediately after reading the article, by asking Shoprite King William’s Town to deliver food to the centre.
On Friday, Essex and her team drove from Port Elizabeth to the centre to hand over more food, toiletries and sweet treats.
Social development spokesman Mzukisi Solani blamed new Treasury regulations for “glitches” in transferring funds. He said there had been “a transition in payment methods following new treasury regulations”.
“Before we used to transfer these funds in advance, meaning at the beginning of every month.
“However, since Treasury came up with new guidelines, saying the government must pay after services have been rendered, we now transfer them at month’s-end,” Solani said.
Yesterday, Mandoyi said she was still waiting for the payment.
Donors rush to feed starving kids at haven
Members of the community and Shoprite Eastern Cape have donated food to the King William’s Town Child and Youth Care Centre.
Earlier this week the Dispatch reported on the plight of the children at the centre, some only three-month-old infants, going to bed on empty stomachs due to erratic payments by the Eastern Cape government.
The facility, the province’s oldest child centre, is home to 104 vulnerable children from three months old to 18.
The centre’s director, Nomsa Mandoyi, said the provincial government had failed to transfer the children’s allowances on time since the beginning of this year.
On Monday, the Dispatch went to the centre and saw that the food cupboards were bare.
Mandoyi said help started to pour in soon after the article was published, with people from King William’s Town and East London arriving at their door with food.
“The MEC for social development, Nancy Sihlwayi, also brought food,” she said.
Shoprite EC public relations officer Esmeralda Essex said the provincial office sprang into action immediately after reading the article, by asking Shoprite King William’s Town to deliver food to the centre.
On Friday, Essex and her team drove from Port Elizabeth to the centre to hand over more food, toiletries and sweet treats.
Social development spokesman Mzukisi Solani blamed new Treasury regulations for “glitches” in transferring funds. He said there had been “a transition in payment methods following new treasury regulations”.
“Before we used to transfer these funds in advance, meaning at the beginning of every month.
“However, since Treasury came up with new guidelines, saying the government must pay after services have been rendered, we now transfer them at month’s-end,” Solani said.
Yesterday, Mandoyi said she was still waiting for the payment.
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