A group of Hartbeespoort residents are seeing to it that the needy in the community are fed during this difficult period. The group, that works under the Facebook name Harties – Help Is On The Way/Hulp Is Oppad, is currently feeding hundreds of people and helping in other ways on a daily basis.

The Facebook group was created on 24 March just before the lockdown with the aim to assist people in need of help during the next three weeks and thereafter.

“When the lockdown was announced, I thought about all the people who were going to be without work, money and food and wanted to do something. I spoke to people and realised that Hartbeespoort already had a group of selfless people who have been feeding and looking after the needy in the community for the past years,” says Charles de Beer who now works hand in hand with others to alleviate the need.

The Facebook group was created for people who need help during the lockdown, as well as for people who want to contribute. The group had 500 members in two days and has now grown to almost 1 000 members in two weeks. Besides individual cases on a daily basis, Help is on its way, has already delivered large consignments of food parcels to the Ten Rooms squatter camp, Sunway and Refentse last week. Their next project this week is settlements in Broederstroom and learners and their families of the Ennis Thabong School. Next week, Hartbeespoort’s car guards will get their turn.

“People don’t realise how many people need help in this community. The need is huge,” Charles says.

The group sources food from farms and rely on local businesses that have joined the drive by supplying food at cost price.”Businesses like Foodzone, Hartbeespoort Vleismark, The Homebox Company and others are helping us immensely on an ongoing basis with discounted prices.”

Besides food, the group also helps people with other needs, like a single mother who walks kilometres to work every day and could not afford proper shoes, or a baby who needed warm clothes.

Visit the Harties – Help Is On The Way/Hulp Is Oppad Facebook page and see how a handful of people can help change the lives of those in need.