Corona emergency aid South Africa: People from the Osnabrück region donate more than €30,000 to people at risk of hunger in the Durban/South Africa region. In just three weeks, church circles and organizations are raising an incredible amount of money for the South African poorest of the poor!

30,171,07€ this is the current status of the donation barometer! "We have received more than twice as many donations as we had quietly hoped for," says Anke Meckfessel, who organised the appeal for donations with the partnership committees in the circuits of Bramsche and Melle-Georgsmarienhütte and the friends of partnership association e.V. The people in charge would have already counted €15,000 as a success. Because the situation due to the Corona pandemic is also very difficult here in Germany. But most people here have a home and know that they will still have enough food tomorrow.
The situation is different in South Africa: the sudden curfew has cut off earning opportunities, soup kitchens and other offers of help. Neighbourhood aid was able to absorb the loss at the beginning. But now the gardens and wallets are empty – and hunger is part of everyday life. This is reported by the South African partner communities in the province of KwaZuluNatal in agreement.

The collected money will now be transferred to the lutheran circuits in South Africa. There, those responsible will put the money into the places that a particularly large number of people have to feed. Food rations and hygiene items are purchased centrally. The otherwise closed churches serve to assemble the packages needed depending on the size of the household – and many volunteers then bring the rations, sometimes almost 100km far, to the poorest of the poor – the currently hungry.

"It almost doesn't matter: the people here are dying of hunger or on/with Corona." One member, Mrs Nellie Luthuli, of the Partnership Committee in Durban sums up the situation. She continued: "Winter is here now, the number of infections continues to rise and on – we don't know what it will be like in three to four months."

That is why the circuits in Osnabrück region have decided not to close the donation barometer https://altruja.de/coronasoforthilfe. "We suspect that we want to give another sum to South Africa in the European autumn to provide further support and support our partners so that the worst can hopefully be prevented." This is how the patron of the appeal for donations, Superintendent Hannes Meyer-ten Thoren, summarizes the action.