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Friends like you were in our thoughts recently
Friends like you were in our thoughts recently when we were driving through pouring rain, and noticed several homeless people trying to find shelter from the misery.
Our thoughts were those of thankfulness for all your past kindness to these unfortunate souls. But we were also reminded that winter is coming. Winter, with the added suffering of cold, which makes all the hardships worse.
You see, people living on the street aren’t just random anonymous figures. They’re real people. People with names like Jack, Thandi and Josiah. They have histories, and stories of why they’ve reached the last stop of the street as home.
Jack is a regular in our food queue. He has only plastic sandals on his feet, each different in size and colour. He was retrenched two years ago at age 34 from the plumbing firm where he’d worked for 12 years. He spends each day knocking on doors hoping that someone will offer him work of some kind. At night he sleeps in the recess of a doorway.
Thandi takes shelter in a disused building on the edge of the city. She lost her livelihood as a domestic worker when her employers left the country. As hard as she tries, she hasn’t found a new job. When we last saw her, her two-year-old was strapped to her back. He was whimpering quietly. ‘He’s sick’, she said, hoping that she might get a blanket to keep her son warm through the night.
Josiah looks older than his 52 years. He came to the city when things got really bad in his small hometown. But his life has gone from bad to worse. He depends entirely on his Salvation Army single meal each day just to survive.
Each day, when we see the desperation around us, we’re reminded that ‘but for the grace of God’, we could be one of them. Worse still, our families and loved ones could be with us.
Because what breaks our hearts even more these days, is the fast growing number of whole families in food queues at our Corps countrywide. These families may not have lost their shelter, but they have no way of affording food.
We don’t have the power to fix everything – but with your continued help – and donation made online by clicking here – we can do something.
If you’ll click here now to send your ‘winter donation’, we can make sure that nobody leaves our food queues without some nourishing hot soup and filling bread.
If you would open your very generous heart again, we can ensure that we have blankets on hand for those who have absolutely nothing to shield them from the bitter winter cold.
And that somebody is you – caring enough to reach out with the warmth of a compassionate hand. As we thank you once more for your past gifts, our hearts are filled with the hope that you may be willing to help again with your donation made here – at this very worst time of year to be homeless and hungry.
