Unsung Heroes

I first did a post about Dibanani CT before Easter this year 'Time to give a little' when they were trying to collect 10 000 Easter eggs to hand out in Blikkiesdorp. Many people in boxed me to ask me to do a follow-up post about how it went. As you can well imagine, 10 000 eggs was an almost impossible task but they went for it with guns blazing anyway. Quite a few eggs were donated but not nearly enough to make sure no children were left disappointed - not even close. What the guys decided to do was take the eggs they did manage to collect to some of the safe houses under their care and distribute the chocolate loveliness there along with some toys.

The money that was collected was put to use to start the Dibanani CT feeding scheme. I asked Seppie what made them start the feeding scheme and he told me that apart from their work with abused and abandoned children they also have workshops at impoverished schools to build self esteem. Some of the kids fainted during the workshops so Seppie decided to investigate and discovered that these children are not getting regular meals and a few teachers were providing meals at break times out of their own pockets. On the 1^st of April 2012 Dibanani CT started the feeding scheme and did the first daily delivery of a meal and a fruit for each child. Seppie usually prepares the food the night before (he’s even been known to bake the bread rolls himself!) and delivers it to the school in the mornings.

The meals get handed out in the classrooms so that the children won’t get teased by their classmates. What is heartbreaking is that for many of these kids the meal they get at break time is the only meal they get all day. Knowing the Care Bears, they probably have sleepless nights over weekends and school holidays about the fact that these children are going hungry without their help. Considering how hard it’s been for Dibanani CT to raise funds I also suspect that a lot of what is needed is being sponsored by them personally. They have big plans for the feeding scheme, they’ve already identified need in 2 other schools and their dream is for Dibanani CT to eventually have the feeding scheme cover most of Cape Town’s impoverished areas. A mobile kitchen that can service a lot of schools in a day would be ideal but for that they would need a vehicle with a driver and fuel, daily food stock, gas stoves, refrigeration and large cooking pots. Currently there are 35 children being fed at a cost of about R6-00 a day which works out to roughly R200-00 a day or R1000-00 a week. The stress they’re faced with at the moment is lack of funding. How does one commit to feeding a child and then just stop? If they don’t get help soon that’s exactly what is going to happen. They’ve been involved with NPO’s before that closed due to lack of funding, so they know exactly what is at stake. One of the things I love most about Seppie is that he left a previous NPO because the people who were in charge were more interested in what they could do for themselves with the money they raised instead of using it for their NPO. One hears about that kind of thing so often, which is why most people are a bit dubious about NPO’s. Not the Care Bears though, NO WAY!!!

I’ve spoken to a lot of people and the general attitude seems to be that either someone else will make a big donation or with the economy being what it is they can only afford to give R50-00 and are too embarrassed to do so because it seems like nothing. Well, let me tell you guys something. R50-00 might seem like little but if a lot of people commit to R50-00 it will make a big difference. A massive one. Every single cent counts and every single cent puts food in a child’s mouth.

Care Bears is a safe house run by Seppie and Danie and they are in the process of adopting 2 girls and a boy who have been with them for 2 and a half years and they have become their whole life, these children mean the absolute world to them. I've been fortunate enough to see the gorgeous family pictures they are always taking and their childrens' eyes are always shining, always! Dibanani CT have also taken 2 other safe houses under their wing and are responsible for any needs that arise. To give you an idea, just in the last week 3 babies have been rescued. Twin baby boys they estimate to be about 1 year old who are so severely malnourished they only weigh about 5 kg’s and one of them suffers from Foetal Alcohol Syndrome. The safe house they are being cared for in is so poor that the babies are sleeping in a shopping cart at the moment but thankfully Seppie is going to build them a cot. The other baby is a little girl who was sitting on her drunken mother’s lap in front of an open fire and got very badly burnt. Seppie told me that she was enjoying the love and attention from them thoroughly when they went to see her and take supplies to the safe house and they found it incredibly hard to leave.

Considering that there are only 4 people who are the main driving force behind Dibanani CT, I have no idea how they manage to find the time to do everything they do. Apart from the feeding scheme they’re also involved in the safe houses, HIV/AIDS awareness drives, raising money for school fees and school supplies for the older kids in the safe houses, educating people about Foetal Alcohol Syndrome and doing whatever they can for the forgotten people of Blikkiesdorp. I love hearing some of the stories from the guys about that. For example, Jaco told me that last year Dibanani CT went to Blikkiesdorp and handed out what would seem to be a very minimal meal to most people but to this community it was a source of food for a couple of minutes, and jubilant shouts of "hot dogs!" could be heard around the camp. After organizing and managing a line that looked like it was never going to end, they started handing out hot dogs (to children first, of course) and they had to shake their tail feathers very quickly to organise themselves – creating a production line to get these unexpected treats handed out to the people. Before they knew it an hour and a half had gone by with no end to the line in sight and one particular little boy was spotted changing his clothes twice to ensure he got more than one hot dog! Greed you ask?! No. Hunger? YES! They also recently held a blanket drive to collect blankets for the safe houses and when they went to deliver the blankets the children all came outside with huge smiles and great excitement to see them again, even though they had no idea that the guys were bearing gifts, they were just really happy to see them.

Dibanani CT's mission statement is quite simple really. Simple but profound if you think of the ripple effect it will create. They want to provide a safe and loving home for as many children in need as they possibly can, make sure those children get a decent education so that they can have a real chance at a future, they want to help the safe houses and the surrounding impoverished communities as much as they humanly can, continue with their feeding scheme and extend it to encompass more schools and they want to focus on their HIV/AIDS awareness and Foetal Alcohol Syndrome campaigns.

I shudder to think about what these men have seen firsthand. Little girls, pre-teens who should still be playing with dolls, who have been raped by HIV positive family members that fall pregnant and are left on the streets with a newborn baby. Innocent children who have been beaten black and blue. Babies who are left in dustbins to die. They have taken an incredible responsibility onto their shoulders – to commit to care for these children despite the fact that raising money for their NPO is extremely difficult in this financial climate. The stress must be absolutely enormous. So often we read in the newspapers about babies who have been brutally raped and we hear about child abuse and wish we could do something about it. This, right here, is your chance. If you want to make a difference and help these men with the amazing things they do every single day, please visit the Dibanani CT Facebook group or their website and do your bit.

 

These Care Bears are normal people, people with jobs, people like you and me, and they take time out of their busy lives every day to make a difference. I am always humbled when I see how much they are actually involved with. It’s not just the feeding scheme, it’s the safe houses, rescuing children from the most appalling conditions imaginable, the HIV/AIDS awareness drives, helping wherever they can in poor communities and putting their hearts into what they do. There are constant updates on their Facebook Group Dibanani CT/ Care Bears and a lot of information on their website http://www.dibananict.co.za/ so do yourselves a favour and go check it out. In this freezing cold weather I’m hard pressed to think of anything more potentially heart-warming than to make a difference and to put a smile on a cold and hungry child’s face.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t hope it made you want to help...

GeeGee xoxo