Residents at Silvercroon Center enjoy FAK songs. (Photo: Cornelia Thirion/Maroela Media)
Sustainable well-being in African communities is the heart and driving force behind all projects at Solidarity Helping Hand.
Apart from social work in communities, the organization also offers free therapy services at Our Centers as needed. Helpende Hand manages Ons Winkels, part of which income is plowed back into the community and offers free after-school care to children at Ons Plek in Derdepoort, Pretoria.
In between, the organization also manages fundraising projects to ensure the sustainability of their projects.
However, it is not just their own projects that benefit. A helping hand is also regularly extended to state and other private institutions.
One example of this is the Silver Crown Center for the elderly in Eloffsdal in Pretoria.
Here lives an apparently cheerful group of people who have to stretch their monthly Sassa allowance to survive. However, the Sassa allowance of around R2 400 per month can only do so much, which often leaves some elderly people in a dependent and defenseless position.
Solidarity Helping Hand recognizes these needs and helps where possible, even if it is sometimes something as simple as a teatime visit with a meat pie and the singing of FAK songs that remind of the younger days.
Gracia Haven, a youth care center in Pretoria North, also receives support from Solidarity Helping Hand. The center currently houses around 83 children, and it is clear that a lot of love is distributed, a lot of laundry is washed and a lot of sandwiches are made to keep the children’s magic going.
On the surface, staying in Gracia Haven looks like one big sleepover with colorful, fresh bedding and cozy pajamas.
However, the reality is that most of the young residents in Gracia Haven have been removed from their parents’ home and placed in this place of safety.
Uitkoms Care Center in Montana Park in Pretoria also receives regular visits from Solidarity Helping Hand.
The organization was founded in 1990 for the care of people with disabilities and moved here in 1994.
Here, each resident has a spacious room that they can decorate to their liking, and during the day they build puzzles, play fingerboard or crochet.
The center houses around 40 residents and receives around 20 day visitors.
The center receives no government subsidy and is financially supported by the residents’ parents and donations from the public.
The center has planted a flourishing vegetable garden to provide such fresh vegetables for their kitchen. They also sell vegetables to the public as an extra income.
- Please visit Solidarity Helping Hand’s website here for more information about the various projects.