Anglican Church Donates House To The Needy

NNASARETHA KGAMANYANE
Correspondent | Monday June 10, 2013 00:00

These are the soothing words from Anglican Church narrated to the gathering on Saturday during the Andries' family house handover ceremony at Morope.The Good Samaritans from St Andrews Mmopane Anglican Church together with St Michael and All Angels members gathered at Andries' family home where they became a living testimony of the God's glory as they handed over a two-bedroom house they built for Makula Andries.The house was built through Anglican Church women's organisation called Mothers Union (MU) under which women have come together to give back to the community.

According to MU chairperson Florence Mokane, the women have decided to make the organisation as a channel through which they would be giving back to the community and taking part in developing the country.She said that they started small. At first they used to donate various items like toiletry to both female and first offender prisoners but decided to leave such projects for the church youth and do bigger projects.'We wanted to invest in bigger projects.  We were told about the Andires' family situation as well as that of another family that was also in need in Broadhurst. So we decided to weigh their situations and chose to build Makula a house as her situation was more critical,' she recalled.

Andires' face lit up with excitement as the church handed her the key to her new house.  She together with other family members could not stop smiling and thanking the church for the giving gesture.Andires, who is 68-years-old, lived in a small and dilapidated house with her 44-year-old daughter, the only surviving of her four children.  Three of them died, leaving her with 12 grandchildren.  As every single mother, life has not been easy for the poor old woman more especially after losing her three children.Her surviving daughter is a single mother of three children who works at Ipelegeng making life even harder for the family as the P480 she earns cannot meet their needs.

The family survives on the food basket scheme from government.Even though the younger ones have been lucky enough to get access to education as they are supported by social workers' funds from the government where they get uniforms and their school fees are paid for, Agnes Andries was not.Agnes, 28-years-old, was misfortune as she was forced to leave school at a primary level, standard four, as her grandmother told her that there was no one who could take care of her and and her siblings.The young woman now endures the pain of not being able to go to school as she sometimes gets piece jobs as a labourer or at Ipelegeng.

Gaphatshwa ward councillor Kabelo Mokgalajwe expressed his gratitude towards the church saying that it was not the first time a church brought change to the lives of those in need.He said that even though churches make an effort to change lives of the needy, he was disappointed that Kweneng South East Member of Parliament (MP) Mmoloki Raletobana and Mogoditshane/Thamaga sub district chairperson Driver Motlokwa failed to show up at the event after confirming that they would attend.

Raletobana's representative, promised the gathering that the office would fence the yard so that animals do not enter the yard and destroy plants.The family was also given a bed, chairs, blankets and cooking utensils.