By Everson Luhanga
Soaked in drizzling rain and cold weather, a relief organisation, Ashraful Aid, brought warm lunch and food parcels to Marshalltown fire victims who were recently relocated to shacks in Denver in Johannesburg.
Residents, who have been battling devastating floods, came out of their shiny zinc one-room shacks to queue to receive their plates of rice and meat and packages of groceries.
As the two vans carrying food arrived at the main gate of the shantytown around midday on Tuesday, children were seen excited, singing, and dancing. The little ones were the first group to receive hot meals.
Then it was the adults who had to queue twice, where they received their cooked meal before heading to the second queue to get their package of groceries.
Co-ordinator Andy Chinnah, who is a human rights activist, told Scrolla.Africa the thought of providing residents with food parcels came after what they had just experienced. “This place was flooded.
“Residents lost the little they had after everything in their shacks was soaked. Some had complained that they didn’t have anything to eat. We decided to intervene to give them the little we could afford for them,” said Andy.
Andy said Ashraful donated 250 food parcels and 250 plates of cooked food for the residents. He said the area has about 700 people who live at the squatter camp that the city of Johannesburg erected for the Marshalltown fire victims.
This is not the first time Andy has come to the Denver shantytown to help with relief aid. Last Friday, he organised for City trucks to remove mountains of rubbish that had gone uncollected.
However, there is too much work for Ashraful Aid to handle alone. As the food parcels finished in the bakkie, many residents, some shedding tears, came to him saying they had not received any.
One of the residents who received a food parcel, Sthembiso Ndebele, said she was happy to get it. “The food was all soaked in water on Friday. There was nowhere to put them as all we could care about on the night was to survive,” she said.
Simphiwe Ngcobo said the place is not good for humans to live in. “We are here because we have nothing and nowhere else to go. We have no choice. This place is not good for someone to live with their children,” she said.
As Ashraful Aid left the area, rain kept pounding on the shiny roofs of the shacks, causing more fear of yet another possible flooding.
Pictured above: A snake-long queue of residents receiving food parcels from Andy Chinnah of Ashraful Aid.
Image source: Everson Luhanga
