Disaster Risk Management celebrates Mandela Day

17 July 2020

The City of Cape Town's Disaster Risk Management (DRM) team joined Ikamva Labantu earlier today as their contribution to Mandela Day.

‘The City's DRM team are on the ground and in communities on a daily basis to identify, prevent and reduce the occurrence of disasters and lessen the impact of those that cannot be prevented. Assisting such a worthy NGO is not only their contribution towards celebrating the legacy of late president Nelson Mandela, but also reflects their continued commitment to helping our residents,' said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, Alderman JP Smith.
 
DRM staff spent time with Ikamva Labantu, which does incredible work through various grassroots interventions, packing food parcels and distributing hygiene products.
 
Some of these interventions include the food parcels every two weeks to senior citizens who share with their household, and assisting early childhood development (ECD) centres which are still in the process of registration and thus do not receive early learning subsidies from the government.

DRM and Ikamva Labantu have identified 195 ECDs that are unable to provide health and hygiene protocols for COVID-19 to the children who attend.
 
DRM will supplement the ECD's basic readiness kits with masks, soap, hand sanitiser, toothpaste and buckets from a donation received from the Taiwanese Chamber of Commerce. DRM will also support these EDCs with crayons, educational and awareness materials.

'If 67 minutes a year is all you have, then I want to encourage everyone to give back to their communities, but celebrating the life of Nelson Mandela goes beyond one day of getting involved and helping where we can. By reaching out to those less fortunate we are also building our own legacies and contribute to an even greater City,' added Alderman Smith. 
 

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Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office