A decade into helping vulnerable people from Lavender Hill and the surrounding area, an organisation is now calling on people to help them.
Philisa Abafazi Bethu (PAB) in Lavender Hill, which means “heal our women”, was started by community activist Lucinda Evans 10 years ago, in August 2008 and offers various programmes, including a holiday programme, an after-school programme, an elderly support group, computer classes, a woman’s support group, youth camps and an emergency safe house.
For many years the programmes were run from Ms Evans’ home in Lavender Hill but the space was getting too small for all the services and they moved to Grassy Park in 2016.
The building they rented was owned by the Cape Flats Development Association (CAFDA) and was sold last year because of financial constraints.
The property was bought by Old Mutual and an independent primary school will now be built.
Ms Evans was told that the organisation would have to move but was given until March to find another facility.
The organisation receives no government funding so it depends heavily on donations.
PAB has been given the go-ahead to set up at Lavender Hill High School but there is limited space available and would mean that PAB would have to cut back on 60% of its services.
Among others, the gender-based violence and the women empowerment programmes will be put on hold and the organisation would not be able to see its beneficiaries.
Ms Evans said: “We’ve been looking for alternative accommodation in the form of fitted containers that we can put up at Lavender Hill High School.
“We need four but the containers will cost about R120 000 – at R30 000 each. This excludes fees for them to be delivered and set up for the services intended for.
“We desperately need to raise the money to buy four containers in a very limited amount of time.
“My plea is to people to please assist us to raise the necessary funds to keep our services running because right now we have nothing but open
land to move to at the end of March.
“We need a generous sponsor to guarantee either the full monthly rental amount which is R9 000 per month, or a group of donors to pay towards the rental each month,” said Ms Evans.
People and companies are welcome to pledge and donate.
For more information, contact the PAB offices on 021
802 4030, email to admin@philisaabafazi.org or Philisa.abafazi@gmail.com or call Ms Evans on 073 424 4665.
