As autumn goes into winter, temperatures drop and the need for food and warm clothing increases.
There are currently seven soup kitchens in Railton helping to feed around 60 – 80 people EACH … most of which are children ranging for the ages of two-years-old to 18-years-old.
Richard from Pick n Pay Swellendam, together with Johan van den Berg from VM&K arrange deliveries of Pick ‘n Pay stock on a weekly basis to these soup kitchens, however they do not cover clothing and blankets, so we would like to make a plea to the community, if you have any spare, please drop off at the Swellendam Municipal offices, at the old library.
Book Donations
ONSE WINKEL in Swellendam is run by Anne-Marie from Helpende Hand and has kindly donated several boxes of books, which were delivered to Senior Sekondere Skool in Railton this week. This is the second large book donation by them and is much appreciated by the school! ONSE WINKEL is a charity run shop and has asked that we request community members to please donate any Crockery or Winter Clothing if they have available.
Requests from Community Members
Here are a few of the messages from community members which have come in. Most of them are answered by the municipality, but a lot are also private requests:
“Hi Vicky. About 12-18 months ago, Berg street was resurfaced, and now they are digging up a perfect portion at the intersection of Berg and Swellegrebbel, and paving the area. I’m sure this comes at great cost, yet there are other roads that so desperately need resurfacing, and the call for this is apparently unheeded. Von Manger is almost as bumpy as the pass to Die Hell.”
“Kanon street is disintegrating and will soon be a gravel road, to name but a few; but enhancements are done on perfect roads at the neglect of more urgent needs. Do you have some insight into the prioritisation of road maintenance? Thanks for always being available to deal with our issues. You are appreciated.”
REPLY FROM SWELLENDAM MUNICIPALITY: “The construction of the raised intersection is separate to the resurfacing and upgrading of roads. This project was undertaken as a result of a request from the community at an IDP meeting. The goal of the raised intersection is to drastically reduce speeds of trucks and motor vehicles in Swellengrebel Street as this is a busy street with a lot of pedestrian traffic. We are aware of the streets you’ve mentioned but these can unfortunately not be fixed with a simple resurfacing. These roads must undergo a deeper “rebuild” to fully solve the problem. Should you have any further questions or need assistance, please do not hesitate to contact the Infrastructure Offices.”
“Good evening Vicky. Ek kom vannaand met ‘n versoek van ‘n ander aard. Ek verlang graag hulverlening om ‘n laptop tweedehandals te bekom vir my Kerk Emmanuel Pinkster. Indien iemand nie kan skenk sal ek graag ‘n goeie tweedehandse een kan bekostig uit my eie. Ons Kerk kan nie op die oomblik ‘n nuwe een bekostig. Indien u nie kan help is dit HEELTEMAL VERSTANE. Pragtige aand” As daar iemand is wat kan help, kontak asb vir Charmaine Abrahams op 062 737 1096
“Hi Vicky. I trust you are doing well. Could you please send a message to the community requesting that residents who recycle remove all labels from empty containers before recycling them. Additionally, if recycling bottles, please ask them to remove the caps and place them in the recycling separately. They should also cut or tear paper and boxes before recycling. This practice helps prevent the misuse of packaging for falsified content being sold as original products by criminals. Together we are stronger against crime in our beautiful town. Thank you and have a lovely weekend!”
“Good afternoon. I am asking if perhaps you know whom may I communicate with to place a toilet outside in the yard for the people who are staying in there”
REPLY FROM SWELLENDAM MUNICIPALITY: “This matter requires a building control application so you will need to go to town planning at Lindt street.”
“Ek het my woning verlaat en vir my seun gaan kuier wat aangerand was en toe ek terug kom was daar by my huis ingebreek…hulle het alles gesteel wat in die huis was daar is n saak by die polisie gemaak maar nog niks gehoor nie. Ek het help nodig asb … alle klere skoene beddegoed en eetgery is gesteel.”
As daar iemand is wat iets kan skenk, laai dit asseblief by die Swellendam Munisipaliteit se hoofkantore by die ou biblioteek af en ons sal reël dat dit by hierdie man uitkom.
Koop en Verkoop Market
Project Hope held its very first KOOP EN VERKOOP MARKET on the 5 April at the Railton Community hall and it was an enormous success. The goal behind the market is to help provide an income for community members who are struggling by giving them a market where they can sell handmade or second hand goods.
There were many people who assisted to make the Market a big success but out of everyone, the Swellendam Municipality played the biggest part. They made the Railton Community Hall available for the market for free as well as did an entire overhaul of the Community Hall grounds with several teams of workers.
They cleaned out the adjoining plot of land as well, to provide space for a parking area for any visitors to the Market and also brought in 50 tables from other sites, for use by the stall holders.
A team of ladies from the Swellendam Municipality stepped in and hosted a Kiddies table for the Market, where children were given free facepainting and temporary tattoos as well as a chance to participate in a Colouring in Competition where they won cash prizes.
DjWaanie was there to bring great music and Cornelius Pluim brought his jumping castles and Slippery slide to add to the fun. Elna Lamprecht and Agnes Bokwana helped run the obstacle course for the older kids and had them balancing on beams and doing sack races, to earn their sweetie pack reward at the end of the course.
The market was run and co-ordinated by myself (Vicky Bezuidenhout) and Cornelia Gertse with a lot of help from Mio Langenhoven, Anneleen Vorster (Swellendam Municipal Manager), Sign-Rite in Swellendam who printed our beautiful banner, Richard from Pick n Pay and Johan van den Berg who donated money for the Kiddies Colouring in Competition as well as the Banner, Pick n Pay for the loan of their tables and gazebos, the ladies from the Neighborhood Watch who kept an eye on everything, the ladies from the Swellendam municipality who ran the Kiddies stall (Marizel van Bosch, Meryldene Gelderblom, Carmen Gaffley, Li-an Minies, Maria Plaatjies).
Gershan Jansen from Law Enforcement who assisted with the planning, Denver Petersen and Junate Martin from the Swellendam municipality who helped with all matters to do with setup at the Hall. With the cleanup of the hall we had the refuse staff (photo attached), about 30 CWP workers and a team with Louis Mrlasis. Thank you so much to everybody who assisted with this project.
Our very next KOOP EN VERKOOP MARKET will be on the 17th May and we hope to see you all there!
If you are able to assist with any of these causes, contact Vicky on: 071 190 1627
