Dearly B. Loved
OnToplist is optimized by SEO
Add blog to our blog directory.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

I have received this appeal!

This is the situation we find ourselves in at the moment. The old are suffering very badly - I publish this appeal for one of the old Age Homes from:

Jenni Ferguson
Organisers - Jenni Ferguson, Dianne Meiring, Sheryl Wardley On behalf of the Senior Citizens of Westreign Senior Citizen's Home
Address No 1 Rothesay Road, Cnr Perth Road, Avondale West
Cellular 011 215 897
Residence 335608
email spiderz@mweb.co.zw"

"May I seek your assistance to provide the residents at Westreign Senior Citizen's Home with 'care packages'? A similar undertaking in 2007 proved to be highly beneficial to the old folk, where they all received individually labelled boxes of goods.
There are 24 residents in the Home, the eldest 97, the majority being aged over 70. The majority of the residents have no income, and it is apparent that they have no family either in or out of Zimbabwe that assist them. Seven of the residents reside in double accommodations which have basic cooking and refrigeration facilities, the remainder residing in single accommodation with meals provided by the Home. In the extremely trying times that we are all facing at the moment, catering for these residents is a continual nightmare and the 'fare' appears to be basic. Those individuals in self-catering double accommodation are facing a situation where it is impossible to purchase anything meaningful without access to foreign currency, which they do not have.
Would you be in a position to donate :
a sum of cash (to be converted to groceries);
or kind, either in the form of a product that you manufacture if you own a company, or fuel coupons, that can be raffled to create income to purchase goods for the packages;
or donations of product to put into the packages?
Product to be put into the packages, by necessity, is required to be non-perishable. I am looking at including the following as a guideline :
personal toiletries - soap / shampoo / hair conditioner / spray or roll-on deodorant / baby powder / body lotion / shaving lotion / toothpaste / cotton wool / cotton ear buds / boxed tissues / bath soap
food stuffs - tinned : meat, fish, fruit, vegetables / tea bags or leaves / coffee / milk powder / sugar / rice / pasta / fruit juice or cordials / two minute noodles / cup-of-soups
non-food items - toilet rolls / dishwashing liquid / kitchen soap / washing powder / fabric softener / hard surface cleaner
non-essential 'essentials' - biscuits / dried fruit / nuts / sweets that do not require refrigeration
My and my co-organizer's connection to Westreign is one of being interested parties, the Home in Wessex Drive in Mabelreign being situated in our areas of residence. Being less high profile than some of the other senior citizen's homes, they do not appear to have meaningful support.
We are putting the care packages together during the last week of February, to be disbursed during a function to be held at Mabelreign Country Club on Saturday 28th February 2009. Steve Theron has kindly offered his services to entertain the old folks, and they will also be treated to a line dancing display by the Mabelreign Bootscooters and a gymnastics display by the Zimbabwe National Gymnastics Team. Funds are currently being raised to provide the residents with a lunch of cold meat and salad rolls, and drinks will be provided by Mabelreign Country Club at no charge.
Thank you in advance for any assistance, big or small, that you may be in a position to render. Although February seems a long way off, we are hoping to get started on this immediately, and ask that this is given fairly urgent attention.
With kind regards

1 comment:

  1. Do you have any word on how this appeal went? If Zimbabwean currency is worthless how can the organizers get foreign currency (esp. as I read that funds sent to Western Union went missing). How much would it cost (local currency & US, EURO OR BP) to put together a package containing the contents identified in the package proposed for the seniors? It is so sad to see seniors without family. We have so many of them here too.

    ReplyDelete