Helping hands

Two Woodlands community organisations joined hands in celebrating their successes with the children and elders they serve.

Woodlands Women’s Support Group celebrated its fifth anniversary and Attie’s Babes Coaching Clinic kept children in sport for a year during the national Covid-19 lockdown.

They hosted children and the elderly for lunch at Woodlands Sports Field on Saturday March 27.

Gabieba Rademeyer founded the support group in 2016 and with the support of Moegsien Jacobs, was able to access help from the Department of Social Development.

Captain Dalene Murray, from SAPS Rapid Rail Unit, often assists with excursions and awareness programmes for youth, women and the elderly.

Ms Rademeyer completed a crash course on organisational planning, raising funds and hosting events.

Over the past five years she and her committee have hosted Christmas lunches for the elderly and most vulnerable in their community; taken pupils on excursions during the school holidays; hosted parties in the community for children; on Mandela Day, in July they volunteer at Douglas Murray Home for the Aged (DMH), in Cafda; and run weekly feeding programmes.

They have fed communities in and around Mitchell’s Plain, including those occupying the Helen Bowden Nurses’ Home in Granger Bay.

“We try to feed the community twice a week but this is dependent on resources,” she said.

During lockdown the group distributed food parcels in the community for the elderly and unemployed; and members cook food at least once a week.

“We also inform the community on their civic rights and advise them on civic matters,” she said.

Arthur Hendricks, founder of Attie's Babes Coaching Clinic, said they were developing youth for the future.